UN relief agency UNRWA said the situation in Gaza is now so dire that the average person there is living on two pieces of Arabic bread made from UN stockpiles.
The agency supports roughly 89 bakeries across the region, which aim to supply 1.7m people with food.
But Thomas White, the UNRWA’s Gaza director, said in a video briefing that “now people are beyond looking for bread. It’s looking for water”.
He described Gaza as a “scene of death and destruction” where no place is safe, after travelling around the region extensively in recent weeks.
UN deputy Mideast coordinator Lynn Hastings said just one of three water supply lines from Israel is now operational.
“Many people are relying on brackish or saline groundwater, if at all,” she said.
She added that dwindling fuel supplies mean backup generators, which keep hospitals, water desalination and food production facilities running, are “one by one grinding to a halt”.
Some people in Gaza have resorted to using sea water to drink and bathe in due to a lack of fresh water supplies in the enclave.
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