A FAMINE in Gaza will be impossible to avoid if current restrictions on aid remain in place, as the ongoing humanitarian “catastrophe” is sure to worsen without a lasting ceasefire, MPs warned today.

In an urgent report, the Commons international development committee said it was “unnecessarily difficult” to get aid into the devastated Palestinian enclave, with NGOs complaining  of an “almost malicious bureaucracy” that saw lorries of aid turned back for carrying even one item deemed to be of possible military use.

Citing evidence from experts and a visit to the region, the panel of MPs urged the government to put pressure on Israel to open more crossings into Gaza while warning that any ceasefire of less than 30 days would not be enough to get sufficient aid into the country to “mitigate some of the worst horrors of the situation.”

There is “compelling evidence” that both sides of the conflict have breached international law, the committee said, with Israel at a minimum “operating against the spirit of humanitarian law, as aid continues to trickle into Gaza at a speed that does not satisfy the requirements for basic human needs.”

Committee chairwoman and Labour MP Sarah Champion said: “In war, we expect the deaths to be men of fighting age.

“In Gaza, they are overwhelmingly women and children. This raises questions and serious concerns.

“Not even a fraction of the needed aid is entering Gaza to prevent famine and there is no way that can even begin to happen in the current conditions.”

According to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry, the Palestinian death toll has now exceeded 30,000 people.

The government has previously called for a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid to enter the overcrowded coastal territory, while both Labour and the SNP have called for a ceasefire.