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UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told AFP on Wednesday that Israel should immediately open crossings into Gaza for humanitarian aid as part of a ceasefire agreement."We've been calling for unhindered access," Fletcher said in an interview in Cairo, adding that "it should happen now. We want it to happen immediately as part of this agreement", referring to the deal between Israel and Hamas.US President Donald Trump and regional leaders on Monday signed a declaration in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to cement the deal."But the test of this agreement is not the photos and the press conferences and the interviews. The test is that we have children fed, that we have anaesthetics in the hospitals for people getting treatment, that we have tents over people's heads," Fletcher said.The war sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel led to a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, with the densely-populated territory reliant on aid that was heavily restricted by Israel, when not cut off outright.At the end of August, the United Nations declared a famine in Gaza, though Israel rejected the declaration.The return of aid is listed in Trump's 20-point plan for Gaza.Fletcher called for all crossings to be opened, and said that in Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump and other world leaders "were unequivocal that we must be allowed to deliver aid at massive scale".On Thursday, Fletcher is to go to the lifeline Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt to see preparations there.The crossing remained shut on Wednesday despite reports that it could reopen to aid convoys, as Israel insisted Hamas hand over the remains of the last deceased hostages it holds."I don't know at this stage whether the crossing will open for sure," Fletcher said, adding that teams were also "working to clear the road on the other side".Fletcher said what had aid had entered so far was "a fraction of what's needed", with just "tens of trucks on a good day rather than the hundreds of trucks" required."There's a sense of complete urgency to this," Fletcher said."We are determined to get in there, stop the starvation, rebuild the health sector, clear the rubble and start to give people hope of a better life."

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on Wednesday slammed impunity in the face of the "horror" unfolding in Gaza, calling on those with power to stop the "21st-century atrocity."In recent weeks Israel has launched a major air and ground offensive on Gaza City in a bid to root out Hamas, exacerbating already dire humanitarian conditions there."So we gather once again to share our testimony and our shame, to try to find words to convey the horror... to repeat that something must be done and, I fear, to accept that nothing will," Fletcher said at an event organised by Jordan and Belgium on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly."A child has been killed on average every hour for almost two years in Gaza, the lucky children sleep in tents" while schools "have become sites of horror, depriving over 700,000 children of their right to education," Fletcher said.Children have suffered a particularly acute toll in Gaza since Israel launched its full-scale campaign in retaliation for the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023."We are told again and again that this is a price a population somehow has to pay for war," Fletcher said."Lawyers and historians will argue long and hard what to call this, and despite bans on international journalists, they will have immense amounts of evidence to consider justice."But until then "our words will not reach... those scraping through the rubble for food (or) enduring amputations without anesthetic.""I fear that we will gather again to solemnly intone the death toll, to try to find new words to express the horror, to call again for action, but how many more must die, and what further damage will we have done to our shared humanity?" Fletcher added.The US-backed Israeli offensive has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee Gaza City, the territory's largest urban center.The offensive came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza.Large parts of Gaza have been laid to waste, and last month a body backed by the United Nations officially declared famine in part of the territory.