AMY GOODMAN: The U.N.’s humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher is warning 14,000 babies could die in Gaza over the next 48 hours if more aid does not enter the besieged Gaza Strip. Fletcher issued the warning during an interview on the BBC earlier today.

TOM FLETCHER: The situation is dire. The real test of the words will be whether we can get that aid in. We are there on the border right now. We have thousands of trucks ready to go. We know how to do this. We’ve done it before. And we are demanding that the world back us in pushing Israel to let us get in and reach those people who are starving right now.

ANNA FOSTER: And yesterday, it was five, five trucks of aid that went in, not fit for purpose in this case.

TOM FLETCHER: No, that’s a drop in the ocean. And let’s be clear, those five trucks are just sat on the other side of the border right now. They’ve not reached the communities they need to reach. And, you know, let me describe what is on those trucks. This is baby food, baby nutrition. There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them.

AMY GOODMAN: That was U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher on the BBC today.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported two of the five aid trucks that entered Friday contain burial shrouds, not food. The group’s head, Ramy Abdu, said, quote, “[T]his isn’t food, it’s preparation for mass death. Gaza isn’t being fed. It’s being buried,” unquote.

This comes as Israel expands its military assault on Gaza, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to take full control of the entire Gaza Strip. Netanyahu’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has openly said Israel is, quote, “cleansing Gaza.”

In recent days, Israeli military attacks by air, land and sea have killed hundreds of Palestinians, including at least 73 Palestinians so far today. One Israeli strike today killed 22 Palestinians at a displacement shelter in Gaza City.

On Monday, Israel ordered the forced evacuation of Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city. Displaced residents said they had nowhere to go.

MAGED AL-BAREEM: [translated] We are the residents of Bani Suheila. We don’t know where to go. We are innocent and unarmed civilians. We don’t know where to go. We want them to stop the war. We have no business in all what’s happening. May God take revenge.

REPORTER: [translated] Where are you taking your son now?

MAGED AL-BAREEM: [translated] He is my nephew. His father is a martyr. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know.

AMY GOODMAN: We go now to Gaza City, where we’re joined again by Mahmoud Alsaqqa, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza.

Mahmoud, welcome back to Democracy Now! We last spoke to you exactly a week ago from your office there in Gaza City. Since then, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has intensified. Palestinians are fleeing Khan Younis, the second-largest city in Gaza, and Israeli attacks killed hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend, including five journalists. Can you describe the situation at this point? As Israel is saying they are partially lifting the blockade, talk about what’s getting in, what’s getting out. How many trucks are needed to come into Gaza at this point?

MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me again.

Unfortunately, the situation since our last meeting has been not even improved. It’s under [inaudible]. It’s deteriorating. And what’s happening right now in the Gaza is really heartbreaking. And the conditions of the families, of our families, of our friends, of the people here have become truly unbearable. And the suffering is really beyond description.

Yeah, I agree with you, there are some trucks. We are talking about five trucks coming into Gaza yesterday, but it’s merely a drop in the ocean compared to the overwhelming needs of the Gazans. Imagine, imagine that people here in Gaza are starving since more than 77 days due to the Israeli full blockade, without having any supplies in either food, medical or any humanitarian supplies, and now we are talking about just five trucks that it could be support in responding to this needs. Just before this full blockade, during the ceasefire phase, we used to have 600 trucks per day. So, now we are talking about five trucks. Even if it’s increased in the coming days, it could reach 30 trucks, but it’s nothing compared to the high needs of the people here in Gaza.

Just to give you also — and how is the situation on the ground? The people now are really suffering. Children are crying out in hunger, and even most of the time they are going to sleep hungry. The parents, the father, the mothers, are now preferring to be just die without having or seeing their children in such a position, and they didn’t have any power to help in that regards. This is what we are witnessing right now.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Mahmoud, ever since Israel ended the ceasefire, what has been the presence of Israeli soldiers within Gaza? Because, obviously, Benjamin Netanyahu keeps talking about a major offensive. To what degree is the Israeli military occupying major sections of Gaza?

MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: You know, right now, in parallel to this, all these things happening, they are intensifying their offensive military operation in the Gaza Strip. As you already said, there is an evacuation orders for new areas of the Gaza Strip. The whole North governorate and the whole Khan Younis governorate are now under evacuation order. We are now talking more than 70% of the Gaza Strip under such no-go zones or evacuation orders.

And you can imagine the conditions of the people who have been displaced without having any belongings and without having any means of survival. These conditions is also as a priority, and we are expecting the worst is coming, as they are — all the night and over the day, they are just bombarding everywhere in the Gaza Strip, in the evacuated areas and even in crowded areas, in the shelters and makeshift camps, where it’s lacked the essentials for the people to survive in these situations. You can imagine the crowdness that nowadays in the Gaza Strip, where a lot of people are crowded in tiny places. And this is lack any essentials for public health, for food, for any survival means in that time.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On Friday, President Trump told reporters, quote, “A lot of people are starving in Gaza,” and he said he wanted to help reduce the suffering. But what has the United States actually done, from what you can tell, in terms of relieving the suffering of the Palestinians there?

MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: Unfortunately, we were expecting more during this visit, to be honest, in reaching a permanent and last ceasefire. But, unfortunately, until now, we didn’t have anything.

During the last few days, we have an increasing international pressure, which was good. After 19 months of this suffering of the people in Gaza Strip, we are seeing some people are really making some pressure to the Israelis. And this is why we are afraid that this is limited gesture of having some aids in. It’s likely made under this pressure, and it’s not a genuine step from the Israeli side towards resolving this humanitarian catastrophe.

What we are looking for right now is to make this pressure and to hold Israel accountable to this full blockade, inhuman and — inhuman blockade, so they can open these borders, and we can, as humanitarian agencies, can work in supporting those people in need. And also, at the same times while we are asking for this opening of the borders, we are asking for a ceasefire, because the people are really exhausted during the last 19 months of having constant fear and having all this displacement times for the people. So we need this opening for the borders. We need to have this ceasefire that could be last and could be permanent ceasefire, so we can, as agencies, can provide the support for the people.

The Americans and the Israelis now, they are providing and introducing a new mechanism for aid, and which is, as we have reiterated, that it is not in line with the international humanitarian law. It’s excluding the elderly and the sick, the people with disabilities. We, as organization, U.N. agencies and international NGOs, we have the infrastructure in place, and we have a rigorous system in that regards, and we have our operation in place, so it’s no need to reinvent a new tool or mechanism. All that is needed is to allow the organizations to work freely in supporting the people in need, without enforcing the people to go to militarized zones to get their supplies from, which is unprotected and inhuman for the world. And it’s just to reiterate that Israeli is organizing and instrumentalizing the aid as a tool of control.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that Israel is going for total victory in Gaza?

MAHMOUD ALSAQQA: What is the meaning of total victory of Gaza? Is the meaning of total victory that we are killing hundreds of people on a daily basis? Are we — are our total victory is to displace the people multiple times? Nowadays people are — some people, some families have been displaced for more than 20 times. You can imagine what’s the meaning of displacement. I’m sure that most of the people already seen some pictures and scenes where the elderly people are enforced to flee their places, walking on the streets in a very weak infrastructure and trying to evacuate from those areas without having any belongings or without having any means.

So, what does the total victory mean? The total victory is to support the people, is to be accountable for the international humanitarian law, not the breaches or violating or continuing this offensive military operation on the Gazans and on the innocent people, innocent people here in Gaza Strip, all the peoples who are being killed. And you are seeing that most of the people who were killed are children and women. And this is not that like the victory could be.

AMY GOODMAN: Mahmoud Alsaqqa, we want to thank you so much for being with us, Oxfam’s food security and livelihoods coordinator in Gaza, joining us now from Gaza City.

When we come back, a new exposé from the news outlet +972. Its headline, “'Render it unusable': Israel’s mission of total urban destruction.” We’ll go to Tel Aviv. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: “Say Goodbye” by Michael Franti in our Democracy Now! studio back in 2014.