The United Nations has officially declared famine in Gaza, the first in the Middle East, with its experts saying that 500,000 people are facing a "catastrophic" food shortage.

After months of warnings about the deteriorating humanitarian situation, the Rome-based IPC said famine had now been confirmed in the Gaza province, which covers about 20% of the Gaza Strip.

The famine in Gaza should "weigh on all our consciences" and would have been entirely preventable if the United Nations had not been systematically prevented from delivering food, the head of the UN humanitarian mission said, quoted by AFP.

"This is a famine that we could prevent if we were allowed to. But food is piling up at the borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel," Tom Fletcher told reporters in Geneva, calling it "a famine that will and must weigh on all our consciences."

"Creating artificial famine for military purposes is a war crime," the UN accused.

The IPC noted that the local food system has also collapsed, with an estimated 98% of arable land in the Gaza Strip damaged, inaccessible, or both, livestock destroyed, and fishing banned.

In addition, the health system has seriously deteriorated and access to safe drinking water and adequate hygiene is severely restricted.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative is a coalition of observers tasked by the UN to warn of impending crises.

Its definition of famine includes three elements.

First, at least 20% of households—one in five—must be suffering from extreme food deprivation.

Second, at least 30%—one in three—of children under the age of five must be suffering from acute malnutrition.

And third, at least two out of every 10,000 people must die every day from hunger or malnutrition and disease.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry categorically rejected the report's conclusions, saying there was no famine in Gaza and that the conclusions were based on "Hamas lies."

"There is no famine in Gaza," the ministry said, criticizing the document and accusing it of being based on "lies spread by Hamas through organizations with vested interests."

UN Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that the famine in Gaza cannot continue "with impunity." | BGNES