PALESTINIANS in Gaza City are in the grip of a full-blown famine, the United Nations confirmed today.

The declaration by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) came as Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to destroy Gaza unless Hamas completely gives in to his country’s demands.

The IPC, the globally recognised system for classifying food insecurity and malnutrition, has declared just four other famines since the body was established in 2004.  

It said it had found more than half a million people in Gaza to be "facing catastrophic conditions characterised by starvation, destitution and death. 

Another 1.07 million people in Gaza were in an emergency situation and 396,000 people were in crisis, the UN body said. 

The IPC noted that the famine in Gaza was “entirely man-made” and could be “halted and reversed” if the Israeli government chose to do so.

Its report said: “There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that an immediate, at-scale response is needed. Any further delay, even by days, will result in a totally unacceptable escalation of famine-related mortality.”

UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said: “The famine is the direct result of actions taken by the Israeli government.”

“It is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare and the resulting deaths may also amount to the war crime of wilful killing.”

UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs Tom Fletcher said: “Let us get food and other supplies in unimpeded and at the massive scale required. End the retribution. It is too late for far too many, but not for everyone in Gaza. Enough, for humanity’s sake. Let us in.” 

Hamas said the declaration “underscores the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe” faced by people in Gaza.

The Co-ordination of Government Activities in the Territories (Cogat), the Israeli military agency that co-ordinates aid provison, rejected the IPC findings as “false and biased.”

Meanwhile, Mr Katz warned that “the gates of hell will soon open on the heads of Hamas, until they agree to Israel’s conditions for ending the war.” 

He restated his government’s demands in return for a ceasefire: the release of all hostages and the complete disarmament of Hamas. 

The Palestinian armed movement has offered to release captives in exchange for an end to Israeli military operations, but it refuses to lay down its weapons without the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he had instructed officials “to begin immediate negotiations” to release hostages and end the war on Israel’s terms.