The report also found that more than half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing Phase 5 conditions, which are characterized as catastrophic levels of food insecurity. About 1.07 million people, 54% of the population, are facing Phase 4 conditions, characterized as emergency levels of food insecurity.

Israel says "there is no famine in Gaza" after the IPC reports more than 500,000 people in the Strip are facing "starvation, destitution and death".

Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday.

Hospital officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed at least 25 Palestinians sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food aid.

The White House has not commented on a report finding famine in Gaza. Analysts say that absent U.S. pressure, Israel is unlikely to change course.

"An entire population is being pushed into starvation, destitution, and death,” said Belgium's Deputy Prime Minister.

The World Food Program says a drone attack on a 16-truck U.N. convoy carrying food aid to Sudan’s famine-hit North Darfur region destroyed three vehicles that had caught fire.

For an area to be experiencing famine, at least 30 percent of children under 5 must be considered acutely malnourished by height and weight measures. Using the arm circumference method, the I.P.C. said, the accepted threshold dropped to 15 percent.

Hospital officials say Palestinians sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food aid were among at least 25 people killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza.