UPDATING LIVE: Head of Palestine relief agency due to brief Security Council on Gaza crisis

The Commissioner-General of the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) briefed the Security Council in New York on Wednesday as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza worsens, telling ambassadors that life-saving deliveries are being blocked by Israel as part of an "insidious campaign" to push it out of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

Well over half a million Gazans are “one step away from famine”, say UN humanitarians, ahead of a Security Council meeting due to start at 3:00 PM in New York on food security in the stricken enclave. The deputy head of UN aid coordination told ambassadors that famine is "almost inevitable" unless aid can be scaled up. Follow our live coverage here.

In an exclusive interview, Natalie Boucly, the Deputy Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), describes the desperate scenes she witnessed in Gaza, during a recent mission to the occupied Palestinian territory.