Gaza City, Gaza - The UN's human rights chief has warned that thousands of babies in Gaza are at imminent risk of death if Israel does not allow a significant increase in aid into the besieged Palestinian territory.

"There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we reach them," UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher told the BBC on Tuesday.

Israel supposedly began easing its brutal blockade on the Gaza Strip on Monday, but Fletcher said only five aid trucks of baby food had since been allowed into the territory.

"That's a drop in the ocean," the UN humanitarian chief said. "And let's be clear: those five trucks have just sat on the other side of the border right now. They've not reached the communities they need to reach."

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The UN said on Tuesday it has received permission to send some 100 trucks of aid into Gaza, as Israel continues its deadly attacks on the territory's trapped and starving people. That number is less than a fifth of what was coming in before October 7, 2023, when the population was comparatively well-fed.

Gaza's health ministry said Monday at least 3,340 people have been killed since Israel resumed strikes on March 18, taking the overall death toll of an assault deemed genocidal by experts to 53,486 – though the true number is believed to be far higher.

UN-backed reports have repeatedly warned of famine in Gaza, while Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of using its aid blockade as a "tool of extermination."

"We are there on the border right now. We have thousands of trucks ready to go," Fletcher urged. "We are demanding that the world back us in pushing Israel to let us get in and reach those people who are starving right now."