In a press conference from the UN headquarters in New York, the representative said the current rates could double in the coming months due to the lack of action by the occupying power.

“Starving civilians as a method of war is prohibited by international humanitarian law and constitutes a war crime,” Türk recalled.

Israel has a specific obligation, under international humanitarian law, to bring food, medical supplies and other necessary items to Gaza and facilitate humanitarian aid by all means at its disposal, he added.

The High Commissioner denounced the Israeli forces’ impediments to humanitarian aid accessing the north of the enclave in particular, which aggravates already desperate humanitarian and medical needs. At the same time, the evacuation orders “appear designed to completely isolate northern Gaza from the rest of the territory, while bombings and other attacks continue.”

In Lebanon, he added, daily Israeli attacks on residential buildings in urban areas take a terrible toll on civilians, with significant casualties, destruction and displacement.

His statements coincide with the alarm raised by the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) index, which on Friday estimated that nearly 1.8 million people, or about 86 percent of the population of Gaza, are suffering from critical levels of hunger, defined as Phase three or higher on the five-point scale.

Meanwhile, another 133,000, or about six percent of the population, are in Phase Five, the highest level, known as catastrophic hunger.

The initiative has repeatedly warned of famine throughout the more than year-long war that has claimed more than 42,000 lives and injured 96,000 in the Strip alone.

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