Famine has been determined in Gaza Governorate, where Gaza City is located, according to a warning issued Friday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).The report from IPC -- a global initiative monitoring hunger with the backing of governments,

Hospital officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed at least 25 Palestinians sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food aid.

Hospital officials in Gaza say Israeli strikes and gunfire have killed at least 33 Palestinians sheltering in tents or seeking scarce food aid.

Food-security experts said a famine has taken hold in the Gaza City area, the first-ever such determination in the Middle East and one that puts more pressure on Israel.

The determination comes after months of warnings by aid groups that Israel’s restrictions of food and other aid into Gaza were causing starvation among Palestinian civilians.

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).

U.N. Humanitarian Chief Tom Fletcher said that the famine that has struck part of Gaza was preventable, blaming the "systematic obstruction" of aid by Israel and demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu let supplies in on a massive scale.