Hello and welcome to New Zealand from the BBC World Service we're coming to

you live from London I'm James Menendez and coming up later on today's

program we'll be looking at how fake weight loss and

diabetes drugs can find their way into pharmacies also why the US is banning a

popular antivirus software and how chimpanzees self-medicate.

All that's coming up during the course of the hour.

But we are going to start today in Gaza where conditions for people living there are said to be deteriorating fast.

That's despite what seems like weeks or months of appeals to Israel to allow more supplies in,

that's food, water and medicines for what remains of the Territory's hospitals.

The United Nations is warning that more than a million people in Gaza may reach the highest

level of starvation by the middle of July.

Amid sweltering temperatures and a lack of clean water,

doctors in Gaza say they're seeing more and more cases of severe dehydration, malnutrition and the spread of disease, especially among young children.

Our correspondent in Jerusalem, John Donison, has been reporting on this and before hearing his report I asked him first how hard it

was to get a first-hand picture of what's going on in Gaza.

Well it's difficult when you don't have eyes and ears on the ground. Both Israel and Egypt are not currently

allowing foreign journalists into Gaza despite a repeated request for them to do so.

So we rely on a team of freelancers in Gaza

who are operating under very difficult conditions

who then send us the material out and we put it

together here. So it's not ideal and because you're not there to ask the questions, but it is what it is.

So we've been looking at the issue of dehydration and malnutrition in Gaza, especially amongst young children, a problem

...