“FAMINE is imminent” in the northern Gaza Strip, where 70 per cent of the population is experiencing catastrophic hunger, the World Food Programme (WFP) said today.

The alarming report from the United Nations agency coincided with Israel facing mounting pressure from even its closest allies to allow more humanitarian aid to reach the besieged coastal enclave’s civilian population and the Israeli military launching another assault on Gaza’s largest hospital.

According to the latest findings of the WFP’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an international process for estimating the scale of hunger crises, virtually everyone in Gaza is struggling to get enough food, and around 677,000 people — nearly a third of the population — are suffering the highest level of catastrophic hunger.