\n The United Nations officially declared a famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming \"systematic obstruction of aid\" by Israel, hours after Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to destroy the territory's largest city.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel angrily denied there was a famine, with the foreign ministry saying the report was \"based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested interests\".\n<\/p>\n
\n The famine was declared by experts at the Rome-based IPC, who said it affected 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory including Gaza City.\n<\/p>\n
\n Israel this week doubled down on plans to launch a new offensive to capture the city, despite an international outcry, saying it would help bring about the defeat of Hamas.\n<\/p>\n
\n The IPC projected that the famine would expand to Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis governorates by the end of September, covering around two-thirds of Gaza.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN agencies and aid groups have warned for months of a looming famine in Gaza, where Israel has severely restricted aid and at times completely cut it off during its nearly two-year war with militant group Hamas.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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\".\n<\/p>\n
\n 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\".\n<\/p>\n
\n 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\".\n<\/p>\n
\n UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a ceasefire, saying: \"We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity\".\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Haunt us all' -\n<\/p>\n
\n \"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 IPC report said.\n<\/p>\n
\n By the end of September, it expected 614,000 people to be facing the same conditions.\n<\/p>\n
\n It 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n In early March, Israel completely banned aid from Gaza for two months, leading to severe shortages of food, medicines and fuel.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking in Geneva, the UN's Fletcher said the famine should \"haunt us all\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"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.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ahead of the report's release, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee preemptively attacked its findings.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"You know who IS starving? The hostages kidnapped and tortured by uncivilised Hamas savages,\" he posted on X.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Gates of hell' -\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"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.\n<\/p>\n
\n His statement came after Netanyahu said late Thursday he had ordered immediate negotiations aimed at freeing all remaining hostages in Gaza.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Israeli premier added that the push to release the hostages would accompany the operation to take control of Gaza City.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"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.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Hand in hand' -\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier this week, the Israeli defence ministry authorised the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists to help seize Gaza City.\n<\/p>\n
\n The UN humanitarian office has warned that the planned Israeli operation will have \"a horrific humanitarian impact\" on an already exhausted population.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mediators have been waiting for an official Israeli response to their latest ceasefire proposal, which Hamas accepted earlier this week.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hamas's October 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.\n<\/p>\n
\n Of the 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.\n<\/p>\n
\n 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 that the United Nations considers reliable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Nations officially declared a famine in Gaza on Friday, blaming \"systematic obstruction of aid\" by Israel, hours after Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to destroy the territory's largest city. Israel angrily denied there was a famine, with the foreign ministry saying the report was \"based on Hamas lies laundered through organisations with vested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-148986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n