Gaza-Israel conflict latest: ‘Worst-case famine scenario’ unfolding, Trump calls out ‘real starvation’, Starmer calls emergency cabinet meeting – UK Times

• A UN-backed food security monitor this morning alerted that “the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip” .
• The alert said famine thresholds have been met for most of the Gaza Strip and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City.
• The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) is a global authority providing criteria for famine but it is up to aid agencies and governments to officially declare famine.
• Israel’s foreign minister denied accusations that it’s withholding aid, saying it’s a “lie”.
• The death toll has now surpassed 60,000 in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
• In Scotland, Trump has said he’s working with Israel’s prime minister “to try and get things straightened out”.

US president Donald Trump said on Monday that he is “not particularly convinced” by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that there is no starvation in Gaza, adding: “Based on television, I would say not particularly, because those children look very hungry.”

Later, Trump asserted there was “real starvation” in the territory, saying: “You can’t fake that”, and pledged to set up “food centres” in Gaza amid growing global outrage over the humanitarian crisis.

Israel has denied widespread famine, calling the images of emaciated children misleading or isolated, but has begun daily 10-hour pauses in fighting to allow more aid to enter by land and air.

A mother of five and currently pregnant, Samah, 32, has not eaten since yesterday.

“No flour, no food, no water. I swear to God. The place we’re in is destitute.

“I am pregnant, but I have not eaten anything since yesterday. I swear to God. The children and the elderly too. We have a diabetic family member, he had two surgeries, he is in need of food and water, and safety, but there is none.

“I do not worry about myself when it comes to eating and drinking water, I worry about the baby I’m carrying. I worry about securing diapers and formula milk for my baby. This is the biggest source of stress and pressure that I am experiencing as a mother. Now I am preparing diapers for the baby using rags because there are no diapers because a bag of diapers is being sold for 4 or 5 million shekels.”

Samah is currently displaced in Nuseirat and travelled on foot to the CARE clinic, which provides children, pregnant and breastfeeding women with malnutrition screening and supplements.

“I used to pray every day that things will get better and that food, water, formula milk and diapers for the children would get in,” she told CARE.

“After an airstrike hit really close to the place we were in, we said we do not want food, we just want an end to the bloodshed and an end to this war, because mentally we are destroyed.”

US President Donald Trump has said he’s “working to get things straightened out” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaking to reporters in Scotland, Trump’s comments follow his meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday.

The latest IPC report on Gaza on a worst-case famine scenario unfolding in Gaza has also found that safe spaces in the besieged enclave are shrinking.

“Safe spaces are becoming virtually non-existent,” the latest IPC report found.

“The population is increasingly confined to ever-shrinking areas not designated as military zones or subject to displacement orders – primarily in Gaza City and the middle governorates.”

UN agencies have issued a joint response to today’s famine alert by the UN-backed IPC food security body, highlighting the desperate need for action in Gaza.

“Emaciated children and babies are dying from malnutrition in Gaza,” the UN’s agency for the welfare of children said.

Unicef chief Catherine Russell called for “immediate, safe and unhindered humanitarian access across Gaza” to scale up food, water and medical deliveries.

“Without that, mothers and fathers will continue to face a parent’s worst nightmare, powerless to save a starving child from a condition we are able to prevent.”

The World Food Programme’s executive director said waiting for the official IPC confirmation of famine to provide aid is “unconscionable”.

“The longer we wait to act, the higher the death toll will rise,” Cindy McCain said.

Noura, 27, carefully cradled her 11-month toddler while waiting in line to get him screened for malnutrition at CARE’s primary healthcare centre in Deir Al-Balah. He has already missed some of his developmental milestones like crawling and teething.

“My son is supposed to be drinking formula milk, but there is none to offer. I give him an empty feeding bottle just to distract him,” Noura told CARE.

“I am barely able to breastfeed him, my milk has almost dried up because I’m also not eating well.”

The tech secretary Peter Kyle was very strong this morning in his opposition to recognising Palestinian statehood.

He warned against “rewarding Hamas” for its 7 October attacks and made his opposition very clear over a change of policy.

But these comments were less about government policy and more about cabinet splits.

Mr Kyle is one of a group of cabinet ministers including chancellor Rachel Reeves and chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden who were previously senior officers in Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a very influential group in the party.

They played a major role with LFI in tackling the antisemitism on the party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and restoring trust with Jews.

But like LFI now they do not want the Oslo Accords ripped up with premature recognition of a Palestinian state.

They want it to be part of a lengthy peace process towards a two state solution.

Across the floor on this are cabinet ministers such as deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and justice secretary Shabana Mahmood who want the UK to recognise a Palestinian state now.

Tobias Ellwood, the last Tory foreign minister to lead a debate against early recognition of a Palestinian state, has written for The Independent today explaining why he has changed his mind.

It comes as another respected Tory former foreign minister Alistair Burt has also broken ranks with his party this morning saying now is the time to recognise Palestine as a state.

The interventions are a major embarrassment for the current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch who over the weekend doubled down on her opposition to the move.

In his piece Mr Ellwood argued that recognising Palestine as a state now may be the only way to save the prospects of a two-state solution.

He said: “Waiting endlessly for the ‘perfect moment’ is not a strategy. The current status quo, or the pursuit of a one-state solution, will only entrench a perpetual insurgency, fuelled externally and leaving Israel in a state of permanent tensions with its neighbours.”

The issue is just the latest example of a divide between centrist Tories and the increasingly strident right-wing leadership of Ms Badenoch.