An unsupported assessment said Gaza's population had a "risk risk" and a "extreme level" of "food insecurity" facing "isolation of food insecurity" as Israel's blockade of humanitarian aid continued.

The latest report from the Integrated Food Security Stage Classification (IPC) says there has been a "significant deterioration" since October 2024, but no conclusion has been drawn yet.

The report said a two-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was temporarily suspended in Gaza, but since early March there have been hostilities and an aid blockade of Israeli blockades - which have "reversed" any improvements.

It said about 244,000 people are currently experiencing the worst or most “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity and called for urgent action to prevent the “increasingly possible” of famine.

Israel renewed its military operations in Gaza in mid-March and blocked 70 days of food, drugs and other aid into Gaza, saying it puts pressure on Hamas to release its remaining hostages.

International condemnation of the lockdown, including the UN said it has supplies on the border crossing in Gaza and can be accessed if Israel allows it. Aid agencies say the lockdown could be a war crime and constitutes a hunger policy.

An IPC assessment released on Monday found that it was facing hunger in Gaza, with 500,000 people (or one in five) facing hunger. It said that as of April 2026, nearly 71,000 children under the age of five are expected to be undernutrition.

It added: “Many families are taking extreme measures to find food, including begging and collecting garbage to sell for purchases.”

The report said that compared with the October 2024 analysis, the current situation represents “a character of human suffering caused by conflict in one of the world’s worst food and nutrition crises.”

Its analysis found that 1.95 million people (93% of Gaza's population) live on high levels of acute food insecurity, including 244,000 who experience "disastrous" levels.

IPC - a global initiative of UN agencies, aid groups and governments - is the main mechanism used by the international community to conclude whether famine is occurring.

Israeli officials denied that there was a hunger crisis in Gaza due to the amount of aid entered during the ceasefire.

As Hamas said, it will release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander as part of an effort to reach a ceasefire agreement. The group said it also aims to promote agreements to provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

The Israeli Prime Minister's office said it did not promise any ceasefire, but was just a "safety corridor" released for Mr. Alexander.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the Middle East on Tuesday, with Israel vowing to expand its military offensive against Hamas without a deal at the end of his visit.

Israeli officials said its plans to expand the offensive included seizing all territories indefinitely, forcibly relocating the Palestinians to the south and taking over opposition from the United Nations and its humanitarian partners, but they said they would not cooperate because they did not seem to cooperate because it seemed to be aid to "weapons".

The IPC said in its report that the aid allocation program was estimated to be "highly under-sufficient" and that the majority of the population would be expected to "face significant problems with visiting the proposed allocation locations".

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, with approximately 1,200 people killed and more than 250 people taking hostages. About 59 hostages remained in Gaza, with as many as 24 of them being considered alive.

According to Hamas-run Health Ministry, Israel's military campaign killed 52,862 people in Gaza.