Israel denies allegations of "mass hunger" spreading across Gaza and accuses Hamas of "sabotaging" the distribution of humanitarian aid.

Israel on Wednesday denied accusations that it is responsible for the "massive hunger" spreading across the Gaza Strip , saying Hamas is deliberately causing shortages in the Palestinian territory.

Israel is facing growing international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than two million people are suffering the consequences of more than 21 months of devastating conflict.

More than 100 humanitarian organizations warned Wednesday that "mass hunger" is spreading in the Gaza Strip , and France warned of a "risk of famine" caused by the Israeli-imposed blockade.

Even after Israel began easing a more than two-month blockade in May, Gazans still suffer from severe shortages of food and other essential goods.

The director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that a "large part" of the population in Gaza is suffering from hunger.

"I don't know what else you can call what's happening other than people are dying en masse of hunger," Tedros said.

Israeli government spokesman David Mencer stated that "there is no famine caused by Israel. It is a shortage caused by Hamas," which rules Gaza.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog declared that the country is acting "in accordance with international law" and accused Hamas of trying to "sabotage" aid distribution in an attempt to hinder the Israeli offensive.

"It's a suffering, feeding my children. I have to risk my life to bring them a sack of flour," says Mohamed Abu Jabal, a displaced Palestinian in Beit Lahia, who hit his head on a truck wheel while collecting the aid.

The UN denounced on Tuesday that Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to collect aid at distribution points since late May, when the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF) was launched.

On Wednesday, 111 organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children, and Oxfam, warned that their own staff in Gaza "are slowly dying."

"As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, humanitarian workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families," the statement said.

The groups called for immediate negotiations for a truce, the opening of border crossings, and the free flow of aid through UN mechanisms, not the GHF.

Cogat, an agency under the Israeli Ministry of Defense, said that nearly 4,500 trucks carrying flour and baby and children's food recently entered Gaza.

Al Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Salmiya said Tuesday that 21 children had died of hunger and malnutrition in the Palestinian enclave in the past 72 hours.

At Naser Hospital in southern Gaza, AFP footage captured parents weeping over the skeletal remains of their 14-year-old son, who had died of starvation.

This Wednesday, 17 Palestinians were killed in new Israeli attacks, four of them near a food distribution center, according to Civil Defense.

The Israeli military said it has intensified its operations in Gaza City and Jabaliya, in the north of the enclave, and claimed to have "dismantled dozens of terrorist infrastructure and located weapons in the south" of the Strip.

Israel and Hamas have been participating in indirect negotiations in Doha since July 6 to try to end nearly two years of conflict.

But after more than two weeks of back-and-forth, the efforts of the mediators—Qatar, Egypt, and the United States—have yielded nothing.

The conflict erupted on October 7, 2023, with Hamas's attack on Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official data.

The Israeli military campaign in the Palestinian enclave killed 59,219 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza.