'There is no meaningful substitute for land access' to deliver Gaza aid: EU

Air drops and a maritime corridor will not be enough to make up for supplies transported by trucks into Gaza, where people are on the verge of famine, the European Union's top humanitarian aid official has said.

Janez Lenarcic, the EU's humanitarian aid and crisis management chief, said on Thursday that land routes were the quickest, easiest and cheapest way to get supplies into Gaza.

"There is a risk of famine," Lenarcic told reporters. "We already have a very strong and credible indication that there are pockets of famine already in Gaza."

Gaza has been effectively sealed off since the attack on Israel on 7 October.

'Particularly extreme'

The United Nations estimates more than half a million of Gaza's 2.3 million people are on the brink of starvation. UN agencies said earlier this month that child malnutrition levels were "particularly extreme" in the northern part of the enclave.

"What is needed is very clear: a surge in humanitarian aid into Gaza and its distribution throughout Gaza," said Lenarcic. "There is no meaningful substitute for land access ... we call on Israel to open additional land crossings."

Officials from the European Union, the United States, the United Nations, Britain, the UAE and Qatar said on Wednesday they held talks on setting up a maritime aid corridor from Greek-administered Southern Cyprus as international pressure mounted on Israel to address the growing problem of hunger in the enclave.

A shipment organised by US-based charity World Central Kitchen carrying 200 million tonnes of aid set off from Greek-administered Cyprus to Gaza earlier this week.