United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths said that the clampdown on aid reaching Gaza portends "horrific" consequences, warning of famine in the besieged Strip.

Griffiths said in an interview with Agence France-Presse in the Qatari capital, Doha, today, Sunday, that “if the fuel runs out and aid does not reach the people who need it, then the famine that we have talked about for a long time and that is looming on the horizon will not loom on the horizon.” From now on, it will be there.”

The UN relief operations official told AFP on the sidelines of his meetings with Qatari officials, "I think what worries us as citizens of the international community is that the consequences will be very difficult, difficult and horrific."

Relief organizations confirm that the ground occupation's incursion into Rafah, which began despite widespread international opposition, has exacerbated the severe humanitarian crisis.

Griffiths said that about 50 aid trucks can reach the most affected areas in northern Gaza daily through the Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing, but what is happening at the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings in southern Gaza means that vital roads are “effectively closed.”

The UN official added, "Therefore, the aid arriving via land routes to the south and to Rafah and those displaced from it is almost non-existent."

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, confirmed yesterday that 800,000 people were “forced to flee” from Rafah in the far south of the Gaza Strip since the start of Israeli military operations in the city this month.

With fuel, food and medicine running out, Griffiths said the military action in Rafah was "exactly what we feared it would be."

He added: "We have all said very clearly that the Rafah operation is a disaster from a humanitarian standpoint, a disaster for people who have already been displaced to Rafah, and this is now their fourth or fifth displacement."