Heads of UN agencies say they cannot do their jobs ‘in the face of overwhelming need and ongoing violence’.

Leading United Nations officials have demanded “an end to the appalling human suffering and humanitarian catastrophe” in the Gaza Strip nearly one year into the war between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas.

“These atrocities must end,” they said on Monday in a statement signed by the heads of UN agencies that included the World Food Programme and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) along with other aid groups as world leaders gathered in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

“Humanitarians must have safe and unimpeded access to those in need,” they said. “We cannot do our jobs in the face of overwhelming need and ongoing violence.”

The UN has long complained of obstacles to getting aid into Gaza during the war and distributing it amid “total lawlessness” in the besieged Palestinian enclave. Nearly 300 humanitarian aid workers, more than two-thirds of them UN staff, have been killed.

“The risk of famine persists with all 2.1 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as humanitarian access remains restricted,” the UN officials said.

“Healthcare has been decimated. More than 500 attacks on healthcare have been recorded in Gaza.”

At least 24 people have been killed and 60 wounded in Israeli military attacks in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the enclave’s Health Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza, said the increasingly desperate conditions in Gaza are “the byproducts of the intense bombing campaign”.

He added: “It is just hard to consider this a war because, since the beginning, it has been largely one-sided, dominated by the Israeli military, but we’re seeing it on a daily basis.”

The war in the Palestinian enclave began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas fighters stormed into Israeli communities, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 captives back to Hamas-run Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s military has levelled swaths of the Palestinian enclave, killing more than 41,400 people, driving nearly all of its population from their homes, and giving rise to deadly hunger and disease, according to Palestinian health authorities.