Dan Stewart, head of news at Save the Children, says there is “no world leader” who has not been warned about the prospect of famine in Gaza before the UN-backed IPC classification system found yesterday that famine was now officially present in the enclave.

“You can see the impact in our nutrition clinics where every bench, every room is packed with thin mothers and babies coming in for treatment,” Stewart told Al Jazeera from Deir el-Balah.

“Our teams as well are saying that, sadly, not all of these children are responding to treatment any more because conditions are so bad outside of the clinics, and that’s increasingly heartbreaking for our teams to see.”

Stewart added that Deir el-Balah is projected to be “pushed into famine” in the coming weeks unless the situation changes.

“But in our nutrition clinics right now, well over half of pregnant women and new mothers are malnourished,” he said, adding that this is the “inevitable consequence of months without food”.