The United Nations has officially announced a famine in Gaza, triggering heated exchanges, with Israel responding by releasing a report accusing Hamas of ‘manipulating aid intentionally.’

According to the Rome-based IPC experts, the famine declaration affects 500,000 residents in the Gaza governorate, which incorporates around a fifth of the Palestinian region, including Gaza City.

UN officials have charged Israel with ‘systematically blocking aid,’ an accusation that Israel vehemently denies. The Israeli foreign ministry claimed the report relies on ‘Hamas falsehoods propagated through biased organizations.’

Reiterating its stance that Hamas misappropriates aid, Israel refutes the famine claims, criticizing the IPC for allegedly altering its global criteria by reducing the threshold from 30% to 15% solely for this report.

The IPC forecasts that the famine will extend to Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by late September, potentially affecting about two-thirds of Gaza.

For several months, UN agencies and humanitarian organizations have cautioned about the impending famine in Gaza, where Israel has drastically limited aid, sometimes halting it completely amidst its protracted conflict with Hamas.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher said the famine was entirely preventable, saying food could not get through to the Palestinian territory ‘because of systematic obstruction by Israel’. 

The Israeli defence ministry body which oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, known as COGAT, also rejected the report, saying previous editions had ‘proven inaccurate’.

‘Like previous IPC reports and assessments regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza, this report ignores the data on aid deliveries published by COGAT, as well as Hamas’ deliberate and cynical exploitation of that aid,’ a statement by COGAT read.

‘The classification of famine relies on unpublished phone surveys, questionable assessments by UNRWA – some of whose employees are Hamas operatives – and local NGOs.’

The body also said that more than 10,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza through the UN, international organisations, and the private sector since May – 80 percent of which carried food. It also said more than 5,000 tonnes of baby food and more than 2,500 tonnes of medical equipment have been delivered during the same period.

In early March, Israel completely banned aid from Gaza for two months, leading to severe shortages of food, medicines and fuel. 

On 19 May, Israel eased the 11-week aid blockade. Since then, it says over 2,300 food packages have been airdropped to the enclave, and more than 2.2 million weekly packages have been delivered at distribution sites.

But the IPC said the deterioration between July and August was the most severe since it began analysing hunger in Gaza, driven by a sharp escalation in the war and restrictions on supplies. 

‘After 22 months of relentless conflict, over half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death,’ the report said.

By the end of September, it expected 614,000 people to be facing the same conditions.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk said it was ‘a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare’ and said it ‘may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing’.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a ceasefire, saying: ‘We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.’

Speaking in Geneva, the UN’s Fletcher said the famine should ‘haunt us all’.

‘It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,’ he told reporters.

Ahead of the report’s release, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee preemptively attacked its findings.

‘You know who IS starving? The hostages kidnapped and tortured by uncivilised Hamas savages,’ he posted on X.

A COGAT statement read: ‘The blatant disregard by the IPC report for the continuous increase in the supply of food, water, and medical aid during the months it references – and particularly in recent weeks – is unprofessional, undermines the credibility of its conclusions, and raises suspicions of political motives.’

While Israel may be increasing the supply of aid, the UN claims nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food in the Strip since May, with most of the killings committed by the Israeli military.

‘Between 30 and 31 July alone, 105 Palestinians were killed and at least 680 more injured along the convoy routes in the Zikim area in North Gaza, southern Khan Younis, and in the vicinity of the GHF sites in Middle Gaza and Rafah,’ the UN said in a statement.

It comes after Israel this week doubled down on plans to launch a new offensive to capture Gaza City, despite an international outcry, saying it would help bring about the defeat of Hamas. 

Speaking earlier on Friday, the Israeli defence minister warned: ‘The gates of hell will open upon the heads of Hamas’s murderers and rapists in Gaza – until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war, primarily the release of all hostages and their disarmament.

‘If they do not agree, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun,’ he added, referring to two cities in Gaza largely razed during previous Israeli operations.

His statement came after Netanyahu said late Thursday he had ordered immediate negotiations aimed at freeing all remaining hostages in Gaza.

The Israeli premier added that the push to release the hostages would accompany the operation to take control of Gaza City.

Um Ibrahim Younes, a 43-year-old mother of four living in the remains of her destroyed home in Gaza City, said: ‘It feels like we are in hell. I’m going insane. I cannot imagine being displaced again.

‘The sound of bombardment grows closer. They want us to flee south again. My body is frail, and so are my children’s – we cannot bear displacement, nor the endless shelling and hunger.’

Earlier this week, the Israeli defence ministry authorised the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help seize Gaza City.

Hundreds of thousands of furious Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Sunday after a nationwide strike to protest against the planned operation and demand an immediate end to the war.

The UN humanitarian office has warned that the planned Israeli operation will have ‘a horrific humanitarian impact’ on an already exhausted population.

Mediators have been waiting for an official Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas accepted earlier this week.

Palestinian sources have said the new deal involves staggered hostage releases, while Israel has insisted that any deal must include the freeing of all the captives at once.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians.

Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,192 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.