A U.N.-backed food security group says famine is unfolding in Gaza, with thousands of children malnourished and hunger-related deaths rising.

A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that the lack of access to Gaza and mobility within has largely denied.

The “worst-case scenario of famine” is currently taking place in the Gaza Strip, according to an alert issued by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed initiative.