'Famine unfolds in Gaza Strip'

ALERT: ACCESS ONLY WAY TO STOP 'STARVATION, DEATH'

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Famine is "now unfolding" in Gaza, with thousands of children malnourished and hunger-related deaths on the rise among the youngest, a UN-backed monitor warned yesterday.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said that air drops over Gaza will not be enough to avert the "humanitarian catastrophe".

"The worst-case scenario of famine is now unfolding in the Gaza Strip," said the UN-backed group of organisations, used as a monitor to gauge malnutrition.

"Immediate, unimpeded" humanitarian access into Gaza was the only way to stop rapidly rising "starvation and death", it said.

The IPC issued their warning "alert" after days of aid groups sounding the alarm over hunger-related deaths in Gaza.