Amid the continued ongoing war by Israel on Palestinian group Hamas, famine is "imminent" in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme warned on Tuesday.

As a severe humanitarian emergency unfolds in the Gaza Strip and the primary UN releif agency is finding it difficult to handle the situation, other organisations have requested the help.

If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza," WFP's deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council, while his colleague from the UN humanitarian office OCHA, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned of "almost inevitable" widespread starvation. "Here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza -- one-quarter of the population -- one step away from famine, with one in six children under two years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting," Rajasingham said as quoted by news agency AFP.

According to Maurizio Martina, deputy director general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), some 97 per cent of groundwater in Gaza is "reportedly unfit for human consumption" and agricultural production is beginning to collapse. A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the aid is ready and waiting at the border. "Almost 1,000 trucks carrying 15,000 metric tons of food are in Egypt ready to move," he said.

In recent weeks, all planned air convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the last aid was allowed on January 23. Meanwhile, the head of UNRWA, the main UN aid agency in Gaza, said it is "at breaking point" as donors freeze funding, Israel exerts pressure to dismantle the body and humanitarian needs soar.