UNRWA Emergency Officer Louise Waterridge said on Friday that more than two million people remain trapped in appalling conditions in Gaza and are deprived of their basic needs.

"People can't escape, and it feels like every path you take leads to death," Waterridge said.

For its part, UNICEF said that "the war on children in Gaza" is a stark reminder of the world's collective responsibility to do everything possible to end their suffering, stressing that "a generation of children is bearing the brunt of the brutal violation of their rights and the destruction of their future."

“Gaza is one of the saddest places for us as humanitarians, because every small effort to save a child’s life is lost to the violent destruction,” said UNICEF’s Chief Communications Officer in Gaza, Rosalia Poulin. “For more than 14 months, children have been on the brink of this nightmare, with more than 14,500 children reported killed and thousands more injured.”

UNICEF warned of the difficult situation with the arrival of winter in Gaza, where children "feel cold and wet and are barefoot", while many of them are still wearing summer clothes, adding that children are searching among the rubble for pieces of plastic to burn, and that diseases are spreading in the sector in light of the lack of health services and the continuous exposure of hospitals to attacks.

UNRWA said that the weather conditions had worsened in recent days and that this pattern would continue as expected, but the agency had been forced to prioritize food over shelter assistance.

UNRWA added, "We have supplies outside the Gaza Strip waiting to enter the Strip for six months. This is the reality that humanitarian workers live here. We have to choose between people getting food or people getting shelter."