The “worst-case scenario of famine” is currently taking place in the Gaza Strip, according to an alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed initiative.

Tuesday’s alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths.

The leading international authority on food crises predicted "widespread death" in Gaza without immediate action.

The worst case scenario of famine is playing out in the Gaza Strip, where food and nutrition indicators have reached their most dire levels since the conflict began.

The world’s leading authority on hunger said that a ‘worst-case scenario of famine’ was developing in Gaza, though stopped short of a formal famine declaration. NBC News’ Matt Bradley reports.

T he announcement was an admission of failure. On July 26th the Israel Defence Forces ( IDF) said that it would parachute food into Gaza and implement daily “humanitarian pauses” in parts of the still depopulated areas of the devastated strip, allowing international aid organisations to bring in convoys.

Some right-wing members of Netanyahu’s coalition are pushing for a takeover of the entire Gaza Strip—something the prime minister has avoided since the beginning of the war. The move would almost certainly result in the deaths of Israeli hostages and soldiers and heap further suffering on Palestinians in Gaza,