(Photo : Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Cindy McCain, American director of the United Nations World Food Program, speaks at an event last year honoring her late husband, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain.

Battered northern Gaza is now in "full-blown famine" following a months-long bombardment in the Israel-Hamas war, said the American director of the United Nations World Food Program Cindy McCain.

"It's a horror," McCain, widow of Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview to air Sunday. "There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it's moving its way south."

She added: "What we are asking for, and what we continually ask for is a ceasefire, and safe, unfettered access to Gaza" to deliver life-saving food and supplies to its 2.3 million residents.

"We can't let this happen," said McCain.

There were warnings in March that northern Gaza was on the brink of famine. 

Since then Gaza hasn't received "anything like" the aid needed to stave off famine, a U.S. Agency for International Development humanitarian official for Gaza told the Associated Press. There has not yet been an official UN declaration of famine in Gaza.

Preparations for an American-orchestrated sea route had been on track to bring in more food by early or mid-May when the U.S. was expecting to finish building a floating pier for shipments.
But the operation is currently stalled by stormy seas.