A report released Thursday by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) claimed the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million residents were currently facing high levels of acute food insecurity, and that the situation could deteriorate drastically if the status quo persisted.

The IPC forecast that by February 7, at current rates, "the entire population in the Gaza Strip" would be at "crisis or worse" levels of hunger on its five-level scale. 

"This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country," it said.

The organization said famine conditions were yet to take hold, given the comparatively short period where people have faced malnutrition, but warned this transition was highly likely unless the situation improved. 

The German Foreign Ministry called the IPC's projections "appalling." 

"It is urgent that Israel grants better access for assistance, adapts its military strategy & allows for humanitarian pauses. Hunger feeds terror," the ministry wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Food and water have become increasingly scarce in Gaza since Israel began retaliatory military strikes and a ground invasion in the enclave, in response to October 7 attacks launched from Gaza by the Islamist militant group Hamas.

Israel immediately blockaded the region after the attack — which killed nearly 1,300 Israelis — cutting off deliveries of fuel, medicine, food and water. Although it later allowed a trickle of aid in through Egypt, UN agencies say only 10% of Gaza's food needs has been entering for weeks.