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.

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.

Scores of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza in recent days, including people sheltering in tents or looking for food.

Parts of Gaza are officially experiencing a “man-made” famine, according to a Friday report by a United Nations-backed initiative, which added that the situation is expected to worsen after months of relentless conflict.

Israeli strikes killed at least 33 Palestinians in Gaza on Saturday, including people sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food, local hospitals said.

A UN-backed body confirms famine in Gaza City and surrounding areas, and says half a million are facing "catastrophic" conditions.

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.

For now the famine is centred in the governorate of Gaza, one of five in the strip. It is the most densely populated and home to Gaza city. By the end of September, famine is expected to spread south to the governorates of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis (see maps).

The world's leading authority on food crises says the Gaza Strip’s largest city is gripped by famine, and that it is likely to spread without an immediate ceasefire and an end to restrictions on human