GEOFF BENNETT: Israel launched its Gaza City offensive today, labeling it a Hamas stronghold.

But it's also home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians already facing starvation and yet another round of forced displacement.

The United Nations warns that Israel's evacuation orders are a recipe for disaster.

And, as William Brangham reports, Israel's military has now halted the temporary planned pauses in the fight.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That's right, Geoff.

Israel's announcement today that its suspending pauses and its attacks, which were meant to enable aid deliveries into Gaza City, makes an already catastrophic problem that much worse.

An international body that tracks hunger crises last week declared that area and its people are experiencing famine.

The chief U.N. organization charged with delivering emergency food aid is the World Food Program.

And its executive director is Cindy McCain.

She just returned from a mission to Gaza this week, and joins us now from Rome.

Cindy McCain, welcome back to the "News Hour."

You were just in Gaza this week.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you went and what you saw?

CINDY MCCAIN, Executive Director, World Food Program: Well, we had the opportunity to go in.

And I wanted to, first of all, see our truck routes and see exactly how we get in, the problems that we encounter, et cetera.

But also part of what our trip was about was also going into many of the areas where food insecurity is at its highest and also seeing what they have to endure each day to be able to survive.

I had the opportunity to meet with a family of 11 that had come all the way from the north, and they brought pictures with them in their belongings.

And the photographs were of the family two years ago.

Of course, I'm sitting in front of them looking at them as they are today.

And the difference, the drastic difference in their health and in their size as well is just -- is mind-boggling.

The important thing for us to remember is that it continued.

What I do each time, the things that I ask for is a cease-fire and to be able to get WFP food in at scale, unfettered and safely, making sure that our humanitarian aid workers are not targets.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What are you able to deliver today versus what you believe is absolutely needed in Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Right now, we get in certainly food boxes, which are our food baskets that are per family, which help.

Obviously, you have seen our flour that goes in or we attempt to get in.

And we do some nutritional items that go into health centers, but those are very limited, to be honest with you, because we just can't get enough of it in there.

During the last cease-fire, we had 200 feeding stations up and running, and we were getting in almost 600 trucks a day.

That's a huge difference from what is going in now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: As you know, the global hunger monitoring group the IPC just said that half-a-million Gazans, which is about a quarter of all the people in Gaza, are experiencing famine right now.

They argue that that is going to go up another 100,000 in the next month or so.

Do you believe the IPC's assessment of how dire the circumstance is?

CINDY MCCAIN: Well, IPC, as you know, is an independent entity and it really does serve as the gold standard for measuring food insecurity around the world.

We at WFP have worked with them for a very long time.

But let me say this also.

You have an ability, all of us together collectively, as humanitarians, with aid, the various aid that we can present, to stop this.

We're able -- if we can get in and do what we said that we can do, which is feed and feed at scale, we can stop a lot of this.

I also might add I met with some hostage families while I was there.

And we seem to forget in all this, certainly millions of Gazans aren't being fed, but the hostages aren't being fed either.

And so we can't forget that one element in all of this as well.

I look at this through a mother's lens.

And what I saw was utter devastation.

And I can't imagine what it would be like as a mother to choose if you can eat, number one, if you can feed your children or yourself, because the obvious answer to that is your children.

It's a devastating situation.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The reason I ask about this report is that Benjamin Netanyahu has said that this report is an outright lie.

The Israeli government has said this data cannot be trusted, that the famine is not real, and that this report should be retracted.

I mean, do you have any question about the authenticity or accuracy?

CINDY MCCAIN: I don't.

I don't know -- we have worked with them for so long.

It comes down to access, and not just letting WFP in, but letting other organizations in as well.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I know that you met while you were there with some Israeli officials.

And, today, Israel said that it was suspending its pause in military actions that had been enacted to allow more aid in.

In your conversation with Israeli officials, did you get any assurances that they will speed the flow of aid into Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Yes, we talked at great length from -- with all three of the areas, COGAT, of course, the IDF and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

And a large part was trying to understand on both sides what the difficulties were.

In our case, I was asking for the ability to have greater access by road so we can get deeper in to feed those who are even more malnourished, but also making sure that we can pack the trucks ourselves, so that they're nailed down and aren't packed incorrectly so that, when they turn a corner, it all falls off.

We are the only organization worldwide that can make this happen at the kind of scale that Gaza needs right now.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Plainly, though, what is, in your view, the biggest impediment to you doing your job in Gaza?

CINDY MCCAIN: Safety is a huge issue.

We just can't abide by guns of any kind, aimed either at people trying to get aid or aimed at the humanitarian aid workers that are trying to deliver aid.

Safety and complete access.

We need to be able to get in fully.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Program, always great to speak with you.

Thank you.

CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you.