Aid agencies are preparing to bring large amounts of vital aid to starving people in Gaza this weekend, as a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas appeared to be holding.

“We have received signals that tomorrow will be the day that the scale-up [in aid deliveries] begins in earnest under the ceasefire,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson for the UN agency for children, Unicef.

"The stakes are really high,” said Ingram, speaking by phone from Gaza. “Even though we have a ceasefire – which means the bombardment stops – the humanitarian crisis continues. We still have a famine to fight and diseases are spreading, so we really need that scale-up to happen quickly and efficiently.”

Ingram said Unicef was calling for all crossings from Israel into Gaza to be reopened, so that trucks were able to move through quickly “without delays or impediments”.

Another UN aid agency, Unrwa, said it had enough stored food to feed every Palestinian in Gaza for three months. Its communications director, Juliette Touma, said on Saturday that the distribution of aid was “absolutely critical in controlling the spread of famine”.