Milan, 22 August. (LaPresse) – Israel says it ‘strongly rejects’ the conclusions of the latest report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed body responsible for monitoring food security, ‘in particular the claim that there is famine in Gaza City.’ The response from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the Israeli military body responsible for aid, states that ‘the report is false and based on partial and biased data and superficial information from Hamas, a terrorist organisation’. This was reported by the BBC. COGAT accuses the IPC of basing its definition of “famine” on an “unpublished telephone survey and questionable assessments by UNRWA, a UN agency known for its operators who are an integral part of Hamas, and local NGOs, which speculate widely on mortality rates that even the Hamas Ministry of Health does not report”, which undermines its credibility. Israel also accuses the agency of failing to take into account the measures taken by Israel to stabilise the situation and its considerable humanitarian efforts.