Beth Bechdol, the deputy director-general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is calling for unrestricted and safe access to the Gaza Strip to deliver emergency aid and prevent the spread of famine.

“Today, food availability is at an all-time low across the entire Gaza Strip, and food supply has sharply deteriorated,” Bechdol said at a ministerial conference in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

“The window of opportunity to deliver assistance is now, today, not tomorrow. Food, medicine and fuel are self-evident priorities, but we must also prioritize the ability to grow food locally where it is needed most to ensure survival,” she said.

Before Israel’s war on Gaza, the enclave was largely self-sufficient in vegetables, eggs, fresh milk, poultry and fish, and produced much of its red meat, olive oil and fruit, according to the FAO.

But more than a year later, agricultural food systems have collapsed in Gaza, while Israeli forces have decimated local food production across the whole of the enclave.