Famine has been officially declared in Gaza City for the first time as Israel vows to launch a military takeover of the Palestinian territory’s capital.
A United Nations aid chief said on Friday that the famine that has struck the city of 500,000 people was preventable, blaming the "systematic obstruction" of aid by Israel and demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let supplies in on a massive scale.
“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...a famine that will and must haunt us all,” UN Emergency Coordinator Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva, commenting on the release of a report by a global hunger monitor.
Mr Fletcher called the announcement “a moment of collective shame”.
“Let us get food and other supplies in unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution,” he added in comments directed at Mr Netanyahu.
Responding to the report, Israel rejected the famine declaration as “false and biased”.
“Over 100,000 trucks of aid have entered Gaza since the start of the war, and in recent weeks a massive influx of aid has flooded the Strip with staple foods and caused a sharp decline in food prices, which have plummeted in the markets,” the Israeli ministry said in a statement.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) has declared just four famines since it was established in 2004.
It comes as Mr Netanyahu gave final approval for the takeover of Gaza City, while also restarting negotiations with Hamas aimed at returning all the remaining hostages and ending the war on Israel's terms.
The wide-scale operation in Gaza City is expected to start within days.
The Israeli military has begun calling medical officials and international organisations in the northern Gaza Strip to encourage them to evacuate to the south ahead of the expanded operation. The military plans to call up 60,000 reservists and extend the service of 20,000 more.
Israeli strikes, meanwhile, killed at least 36 Palestinians Thursday across Gaza, according to local hospitals. A renewed offensive could bring even more casualties and displacement to the territory, where the war has already killed tens of thousands.
Many Israelis fear the operation also threatens the remaining 20 or so living hostages taken by Hamas-led militants in the October 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war.
During a visit to the military's Gaza command in southern Israel, Mr Netanyahu said he would approve the army's plans to retake Gaza City and had instructed officials "to begin immediate negotiations" for the release of all hostages "and an end to the war on terms acceptable to Israel."
"These two things - defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages - go hand in hand," he said.
It appeared to mark Israel's first public response to the latest ceasefire proposal drawn up by Egypt and Qatar. Egyptian and Hamas officials say it is almost identical to an earlier one that Israel accepted before the talks stalled last month.
The proposal would include the release of some of the hostages in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a pullback of Israeli forces and negotiations over a more lasting ceasefire.
Israeli troops have already begun more limited operations in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood and the built-up Jabaliya refugee camp, areas where they have carried out several previous large-scale raids over the course of the war, only to see militants later regroup.
The military says it plans to operate in areas where ground troops have not yet entered and where it says Hamas still has military and governing capabilities.
The IPC’s declaration of famine in Gaza City is expected on Friday morning.
The body has previously warned of imminent famine in parts of Gaza, but has stopped short of formally declaring it. Israel has consistently denied famine is taking place in Gaza.
Three criteria must be met for a famine to be declared: at least 20 per cent of households face an extreme lack of food, at least 30 per cent of children suffer acute malnutrition, and two people for every 10,000 die each day due to “outright starvation”.
