Israel rejects 'mendacious, biased' UN-backed report of 'famine' in Gaza City, saying it's based on Hamas lies

Israel on Friday rejected "mendacious and biased" report of "famine" in Gaza City by a UN-backed group, saying it was based on figures provided by the jihadists of Hamas. 

The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the main global hunger monitor, "is based on partial and unreliable sources, many of them affiliated with Hamas, and blatantly ignores the facts and the extensive humanitarian efforts led by the State of Israel and its international partners," said the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). 

"Instead of providing a professional, neutral, and responsible assessment, the report adopts a biased approach riddled with severe methodological flaws, thereby undermining its credibility and the trust the international community is able to place in it. We expect the international community to act responsibly and not be swept away by false narratives and unfounded propaganda, but rather to examine the complete data and the facts on the ground."

The report, citing data analyzed between July 1 and August 15, claimed that thresholds for starvation and acute malnutrition have been reached. Acknowledging that gathering data for mortality presents a challenge, the monitor said it was reasonable to conclude from the data that a threshold has likely been reached. 

Israel's Foreign Ministry said the monitor “twisted its own rules and ignored its own criteria just to produce false accusations against Israel: the IPC changed its own global standard, cutting the 30% threshold to 15% for this report only, and totally ignoring its second criterion of death rate.”

An Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity told i24NEWS that  "The IPC did something unbelievable—they altered and ignored their own rules to achieve the outcome they aimed for. This is unprecedented. And, of course, they’re ignoring the fact that food prices in the area are actually dropping."

A statement issued by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded the report "an outright lie," adding that "Israel does not have a policy of starvation. Israel has a policy of preventing starvation."