In a makeshift tent near the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis, Nariman holds her baby daughter in cramped conditions. The 23-day-old girl is younger than the ongoing war, and Nariman's entire family is unwell.

"I lack the funds to purchase medicine for my daughter, even though she requires medical support for breathing," explains the young mother, bundled up against the encroaching winter. "My husband is seriously ill, and my young son needed hospital treatment yesterday."

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has described Gaza as experiencing an "epic humanitarian catastrophe," emphasizing that "the world must not look away."

Even if the current pause in hostilities is extended for a few days, Israel has signaled that the military offensive will soon resume, targeting what remains of Hamas' capabilities across Gaza.

Aid agencies warn that this will worsen an already dire humanitarian situation, especially around Khan Younis, where thousands have sought refuge from the fighting in the north.

The fragile truce of the past six days has allowed the UN and others to assess what damage seven weeks of bombing has done and what pressing needs the population now has.

"We cannot get enough aid in through the Rafah crossing right now as winter approaches," says Thomas White, the director of affairs in Gaza for the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency.

White, who toured parts of the heavily bombed Gaza City and the destroyed infrastructure, added: "There's poor sanitation and we're very concerned about an outbreak of infectious diseases such as watery diarrhea as people are forced to live in very cramped conditions with poor sanitation."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that, given living conditions and the lack of health care, "more people in Gaza could die from the disease than bombings".

Over 100,000 people have acute respiratory infections and 80,000 are suffering from diarrhea, the WHO says. Half of those are said to be under the age of five.

Israel has often denied there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and points to the 200 or so trucks currently being allowed into the territory each day during this truce, bringing in much-need food, medicines, and limited fuel supplies.

Distributed throughout Gaza, via UN warehouses and collection points, the badly-needed food, medicines, and limited fuel are quickly snapped up.

It is thought that more than one million Gazans are now living in temporary shelters, having been forced from their homes elsewhere in the besieged Palestinian territory.

If and when the bombing resumes, the aid will again be reduced to a trickle, and thousands of internally displaced people will face the prospect of having to move on again, to areas with much less aid and even fewer resources.

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