DELAYS and obstructions by the Israeli military have meant only 12 trucks have delivered aid to northern Gaza since October, Oxfam warned today.

Israel has continually prevented humanitarian agencies from delivering much-needed aid to the region since it escalated its siege of northern Gaza on October 6, the charity said.

The UN has warned that famine is imminent and estimates that up to 75,000 Gazans remain trapped without access to food, water or power.

According to Oxfam, 34 trucks were permitted to enter the area but most of them were blocked from delivering the aid. 

Three of the 12 that did manage to make it through delivered aid to Mahdia al-Shawa school, where displaced families were sheltering.

But within hours of the aid being distributed, soldiers and remote-controlled quadcopters fired on the school, which was then shelled the next day by the Israeli military.

Staff at the charity said that humanitarian access everywhere in Gaza is at an “all-time low” and that all crossings are barely functional. 

Oxfam reported that people have said they were eating leaves due to food shortages.

One man, who was forced to evacuate with his family from Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza with little notice, told the charity: “One pack of biscuits is all we have for 15 grandchildren.

“We need shelter but a simple plastic tarpaulin costs $180 (£143) and we would need at least five to make a basic tent.” 

Winter weather is expected to affect over 1.6 million people living in makeshift shelters, half a million of whom live in flood-prone areas.

Oxfam’s Middle East and North Africa director Sally Abi-Khalil said: “The situation in Gaza is apocalyptic and people are trapped, unable to find any kind of safety. 

“It is abhorrent that despite international law being so publicly violated by Israel and starvation being used relentlessly as a weapon of war, world leaders continue to do nothing.

“We plead with the entire international community — stop this, now. 

“You have the diplomatic and economic levers to make Israel stop. 

“Every day that passes without a ceasefire is a death sentence for hundreds more civilians.”