Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe IPC report says two famine thresholds have been reached in parts of GazaThe "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" in the Gaza Strip, UN-backed global food security experts warn.An alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) says there is mounting evidence that widespread starvation, malnutrition and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths among the 2.1 million Palestinians there."Latest data indicates that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City," it adds.UN agencies have already warned there is man-made, mass starvation in Gaza, and reported at least 63 malnutrition-related deaths this month. They have blamed the crisis on Israel, which controls the entry of all supplies to the territory."The facts are in - and they are undeniable. Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said."This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes. The trickle of aid must become an ocean. Food, water, medicine, and fuel must flow in waves and without obstruction."Israel imposed a total blockade on aid and commercial deliveries to Gaza at the start of March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, collapsing a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on the armed group to release its Israeli hostages.The blockade was partially eased after 11 weeks, after the Israeli government came under pressure from its allies, but the shortages of food, medicine and fuel have worsened.Israel has insisted there are no restrictions on aid deliveries and that there is "no starvation".However, it has announced in recent days measures aimed at helping the UN and its partners collect aid from crossings and distribute it within Gaza, including daily "tactical pauses" in military operations in three areas and designated corridors.The IPC says immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for an unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response.The report does not formally classify Gaza as being in a famine, saying that can only be made through analysis that will be conducted "without delay".The IPC - a global initiative by UN agencies, aid groups and governments - is the primary mechanism the international community uses to conclude whether a famine is happening.Households are classified as IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) if they experience an extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping strategies.For a famine to be officially declared in a specific area, there must be evidence that:At least 20% of households are in Phase 5At least 30% of children are suffering from acute malnutritionThere are two deaths for every 10,000 inhabitants per day, or four child deaths out of 10,000 children, "due to outright starvation or to the interaction of malnutrition and disease"In May, the IPC warned the entire population of Gaza was facing high levels of acute food insecurity and that 470,000 people (22%) were facing "catastrophic" levels, or Phase 5.The IPC alert issued on Tuesday says the intensification of the Israeli military's bombardment and expansion of its ground operations over the past two months have had a "devastating impact" on civilians and critical infrastructure.People's access to food across Gaza has also become "alarmingly erratic and extremely perilous" during the same period, it adds, noting the UN has recorded the killing of more than 1,000 people seeking aid by Israeli forces.The IPC says malnutrition has been rising rapidly in the first half of July and has reached the famine threshold in Gaza City.It cites the Gaza Nutrition Cluster - which is made up of UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations - as saying more than 20,000 children have been admitted to clinics for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July, with more than 3,000 severely malnourished.It says hospitals have also reported a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths of children under five years of age, with at least 16 reported deaths since 17 July.The IPC alert calls for immediate action to be taken to "alleviate the catastrophic suffering"."This includes scaling up the flow of goods, restoring basic services, and ensuring safe, unimpeded access to sufficient life-saving assistance," it says."None of this is possible unless there is a ceasefire."The World Food Programme and Unicef expressed alarm that two famine thresholds - food consumption and acute malnutrition - had been breached in parts of Gaza.They warned that collecting robust data on the third threshold - starvation-related deaths - under the current circumstances in Gaza was "very difficult as health systems, already decimated by nearly three years of conflict, are collapsing".On Monday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said another 14 people had died as a result of malnutrition over the previous 24 hours. That brought the number of malnutrition-related deaths since the war began to 147, including 88 children, according to the ministry.The World Health Organization also said on Sunday there had been 63 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza this month, including 24 children under five. It noted that the bodies of most of the dead showed "clear signs of severe wasting"."The unbearable suffering of the people of Gaza is already clear for the world to see. Waiting for official confirmation of famine to provide life-saving food aid they desperately need is unconscionable," said the WFP's executive director, Cindy McCain."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. People are already dying of malnutrition, and the longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise."WFP and Unicef said "barely a trickle" of what was needed by Gaza's population had entered since Israel partially eased its blockade, and that more than 62,000 tonnes of aid - the equivalent of approximately 3,100 lorry loads - was required every month just to cover basic humanitarian food and nutrition assistance.At a news conference in Jerusalem, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the situation in Gaza was "tough" but that it was a "lie" that Israel was deliberately starving the population."Who is responsible for this tough reality?... This is Hamas," he declared. "Whether there is a starvation policy? No, the contrary is right."Saar said 5,000 aid lorries had entered Gaza over the last two months, and that Israel was making "amazing efforts, including this week, by opening these humanitarian corridors, by airdrops by any possible means".Israeli military body Cogat, which co-ordinates the entry of aid into Gaza, said more than 200 lorry loads were collected from crossings by the UN and other international organisations on Monday, and hundreds more were awaiting collection.However, Gaza residents said they had seen little to no improvement in the availability of food since Israel announced the new measures to facilitate aid distribution."[On Monday] they airdropped a very small amount of aid in our area. Thousands of people fought over it," mother-of-two Bakr Salah, 35, a nurse at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, told the BBC."My children are starving. They have not eaten a single meal for two days. We keep hearing about aid coming in, but we never see any of it," he added.In the southern city of Khan Younis, Bilal Atallah, a 45-year-old father of five, said he had spent all of Monday waiting for food aid without success."I had no choice but to buy flour from the looters who had stolen it from aid lorries," he said. "It cost me $35 (£26) for 1kg (2.2lb) of flour."Other Gaza residents also reported that criminal gangs were intercepting and looting aid convoys, and then reselling supplies at unaffordable prices.The UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said most UN lorries that entered Gaza on Sunday were looted, but said it was by "desperate individual civilians".Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of stealing aid. However, the New York Times cited senior Israeli military officials as saying on Sunday that the military had never found proof that the armed group had systematically stolen aid from the UN.Reuters news agency also reported last week that internal US government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft by Hamas of US-funded aid.The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.At least 60,034 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.