General Discussion

From CNN's Jennifer Hauser

There is an "urgent need" for a pause in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, according to the UN Human Rights Office.

"There have been very mammoth diplomatic efforts to try to make this happen. The secretary-general is constantly liaising with all the parties that are involved, and many other member states are also exercising what leverage they can. We need the security for the aid deliveries to be able to happen," UNHRO spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told CNN on Monday.

Gaza is facing a critical humanitarian crisis, with shortages of water, electricity, food, fuel and medicine.

"We have seen hospitals that have been forced to evacuate. Doctors insisting that they will stay with patients who are in the ICU wards and the neonatal units, where you had the impossible choice of whether to abandon your patients or to stay with them and risk death.

The access to water, access to food, the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people into southern Gaza has created a very, very difficult humanitarian situation in southern Gaza as well," Shamdasani said.

She said there is a significant amount of aid waiting at the border to get in.

"We are looking at potentially thousands of deaths if this aid doesn't get through."
The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the only remaining outlet for supplies, but it has been closed for much of the past week, with neither Gazans nor foreign nationals able to cross.