TEL AVIV: The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action. The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. The international pressure led Israel over the weekend to announce measures, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops.

Famine in Gaza is no longer a speculative threat, nor is it merely a rhetorical tool to shame the international community into action. It is now a brutal, undeniable fact. The…

UN says ‘vast amounts of aid’ needed to prevent catastrophic health crisis after Israel allowed limited airdrops into Gaza