The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) warned Friday that children in Gaza face an increasing risk of hunger, disease, and death due to the ongoing stifling Israeli blockade of the Strip, stressing that there is no justification for these practices.

In a report highlighting the situation of children in the Strip two months after the Israeli blockade and the denial of humanitarian aid, Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell reiterated her call for the blockade on Gaza to be lifted, commercial goods to be allowed in, and children to be protected.

"For two months, children in the Gaza Strip have faced relentless bombardment, deprived of essential goods, services, and life-saving healthcare," she said, stressing that with every day that passes under the Israeli blockade, children face an increasing risk of hunger, disease, and death, "and nothing justifies this." The Israeli occupation resumed its aggression on Gaza on March 18. Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 42 people Friday in the Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the situation in Gaza is catastrophic, with 2mn people facing hunger.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva Friday, Ghebreyesus noted that WHO is facing unprecedented funding challenges as donor countries reduce their contributions, calling it the most severe disruption in the history of WHO financing.

Executive Director of WHO's Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Michael Ryan, warned that the minds and bodies of Gaza's children are being broken.

Ryan stated that the bodies and minds of Gaza's children are being broken. They are being starved. Complicity is being shown through inaction, urging the international community to take action, and adding that this situation is unbearable. He explained that the current level of malnutrition is causing immune systems to collapse. He also pointed to a rise in pneumonia and meningitis cases among women and children.

Fights are erupting over dwindling supplies in Gaza, a UN aid official said Friday, as Israel's total blockade on supplies into the enclave hit the two-month mark.

Olga Cherevko, an aid worker with the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) in Gaza City, said that inter-communal violence over supplies had intensified.