GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) -- Some Gazans are now reduced to drinking sewage water and eating animal feed, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional chief said Tuesday, pleading for increased aid access immediately to the besieged territory.

Hanan Balkhy, the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean regional director, also warned that the war between Israel and Hamas had a knock-on impact on healthcare across the wider region.

And the impact on children will have severe lasting effects, the child health expert told Agence France-Presse in an interview at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The war between Israel and Hamas had a knock-on impact on healthcare across the wider region.

Inside Gaza, “there are people who are now eating animal food, eating grass, they’re drinking sewage water,” she said.

“Children are barely able to eat, while the trucks are standing outside of Rafah.”

The bloodiest-ever Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’ 7 October attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive have killed at least 36,550 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.