Gaza is slipping into famine, the UN aid agencies warned on Tuesday, as the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory said the Palestinian death toll in the nearly 22-month war had surpassed 60,000.
The World Food Programme, UNICEF and the Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that time was running out and that Gaza was "on the brink of a full-scale famine".
"We need to flood Gaza with large-scale food aid, immediately and without obstruction, and keep it flowing each and every day to prevent mass starvation," WFP executive director Cindy McCain said in a joint statement from the agencies.
This week, Israel launched daily pauses in its military operations in some parts of Gaza and opened secure routes to enable UN and other aid agencies to distribute food in the densely packed territory of more than two million people.
However, Israeli strikes continued overnight, killing 30 people in the Nuseirat refugee camp, according to Gaza's civil defence agency — and experts warn a humanitarian catastrophe of historic proportions was imminent.
"The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC), a coalition of monitors tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises.
The IPC, whose advice is followed by UN agencies, stopped short of declaring a state of famine, but made clear the situation is critical.
Britain, France and Germany could send their foreign ministers to Israel next week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, adding: "We assume that the Israeli government is willing to acknowledge that something must be done now."
In a statement released ahead of the IPC report, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of distorting casualty figures and of looting food designated for civilians
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