DW spoke with Martin Frick, the director of the UN's World Food Program (WFP) Germany office, about the acute lack of food and other basic supplies in Gaza.

"People have tried everything to survive and everything they tried is now exhausted," Frick said, adding that people had eaten animal feed and grass to try to survive. 

He warned that if nothing is done, "we will see more, particularly children, dying from hunger in Gaza."

He explained that a famine in Gaza would have long-term effects, particularly on children.

"A child that is not receiving enough nutritious food in the critical time of growing up risks being disabled for a lifetime," he said, adding that one in three children in Gaza is now acutely malnourished.

Frick said malnourishment in Gaza was due not to a lack of aid but rather a lack of access. He said there were "more than 1,000 trucks standing ready," but aid groups require "more access points so we can bring in the trucks to transport the food that is so urgently needed now in Gaza."

The worst effects of a potential famine can only be avoided when the trucks "can cross the border checkpoints much faster at a much bigger quantity and also at border crossing points in the north that are still unavailable for humanitarian transports."