A worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding in Gazaand immediate action is needed to avoid widespread death, a hunger monitor warned on Tuesday, as the number of Palestinians reported killed in the conflict with Israel crossed the 60,000 threshold, Reuters reported.

The hunger alert and the new death toll are grim milestones in a conflict that began almost two years ago when Hamas attacked Israel, sparking an offensive that has laid waste to much of the enclave and ignited hostilities across the region.

The alert by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) raised the prospect that the man-made starvation crisis in Gaza could be formally classified as a famine, in the hope that this might raise the pressure on Israel to let in far more food, according to Reuters.