UNITED NATIONS, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The little aid allowed to reach supply facilities inside Gaza is "woefully inadequate" to curb starvation or sustain life-saving relief operations, UN humanitarians said Thursday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that while UN teams were able to collect food aid, mainly flour, from Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Zikim crossings on Wednesday, civilians still face death, injury, hunger, displacement and trauma amid the hostilities and inadequate access to food, water, health care and shelter.

Following Israeli allegations that the world body and its partners were not collecting aid at the border crossing, OCHA listed the obstacles it faces in obtaining relief for Gazans.

The humanitarian office said that challenges the United Nations and its partners face include bureaucratic, logistical, administrative and other operational obstacles imposed by Israeli authorities, ongoing hostilities, and access constraints within Gaza, including incidents of criminal looting and shooting that have killed and injured people gathering to offload aid supplies along convoy routes.

OCHA said violence connected with aid distribution has put civilians and humanitarian staff at grave risk and forced aid agencies on many occasions to pause the collection of cargo from Israeli-controlled crossings.

The office said that out of 16 attempts to coordinate movements with Israeli authorities on Wednesday, only eight were facilitated, including the collection and transfer of limited fuel. Two other movements were initially approved but then faced obstacles in Gaza.

OCHA said its partners reported that more than 1 million children are bearing the brunt of deepening starvation and malnutrition, with reports of death from malnutrition increasing by the day.

"According to partners working in nutrition, in the first two weeks of July, nearly 5,000 of the 56,000 children under the age of 5 screened for malnutrition in the governorates of Gaza, Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis were found to be acutely malnourished," the humanitarians said, adding that the figure is a staggering 9 percent, compared with 6 percent in June and 2.4 percent in February.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, said on Thursday that one in every five children in Gaza City is malnourished.

OCHA said that families have been squeezed into just 12 percent of Gaza's area, while the remaining 88 percent of the Gaza Strip now either falls within Israeli-militarized zones or has been placed under displacement orders.

The office said the blockade on critical items, such as tents and other shelter materials, has lasted more than 20 weeks. The trickle of fuel now let in is also wholly insufficient.

OCHA said that aid workers in Gaza who themselves are affected, displaced and going hungry insist on staying and providing life-saving assistance. They join voices across the UN system in continuing to call for a ceasefire and an end to the devastation. ■