Guterres: "Terrible indictment"

"This is a disaster that is entirely man-made and the report clearly shows that it can be stopped," Guterres told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, calling on Israel to ensure humanitarian aid access throughout Gaza, Reuters reported.

The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report said famine had reached "catastrophic" levels for 1.1 million people in Gaza, with the worst conditions in its northern part, Al Jazeera reported.

The entire population of Gaza faces high levels of food insecurity, with households skipping meals on a daily basis, the report said.

Northern Gaza is designated as stage five on the IPC famine classification scale, the most severe stage. This means that the famine is expected to fully occur by May this year.

In northern Gaza, 70 percent of people are already facing "catastrophic hunger."

Two-thirds of households reported skipping meals at least 10 times. Deir el-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah are in the second most severe phase of the ICP famine classification scale - Phase Four, with famine likely to affect these areas by July this year.

Famine can still be prevented, but only if there is an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid continues to flow into Gaza, the report said.