Michael Fakhri, a UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, tells the BBC News channel that the findings in the IPC report confirm Israel is pursuing a policy of deliberate starvation in Gaza.

He says Israel has been "destroying Gaza's food system unabated".

Fakhri also says Israel uses aid as a military tactic, "baiting civilians and then shooting and killing civilians".

Israel denies there is a policy of deliberate starvation. "Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation," the country's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said today.

The foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has also responded to the IPC report.

The PA, which governs parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control, says the report has "closed the door to interpretation and speculation regarding the occurrence of famine".

This, the foreign ministry says, leaves "no room for maneuvering by states and the world" and suggests that more international support for the region is now needed.

"It has confirmed that what is required now, before it is too late, is the mobilisation of international influence."

As reported earlier, Israel has denied the IPC's report, with Netanyahu describing it as an "outright lie".

(Source: BBC)