Foreign ministers from European countries, Australia and the United Kingdom have condemned Israel's plans to construct a settlement east of Jerusalem, they said in a joint statement.

"The decision by the Israeli Higher Planning Committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, east of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and a violation of international law," the statement said.

The European commissioner for equality, preparedness, and crisis management has urged Israel for "unimpeded" humanitarian access into Gaza, as famine is now a "reality" in the Palestinian enclave after confirmation by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

"Famine is a reality in Gaza, now confirmed by the IPC report. People are dying from starvation," Hadja Lahbib said through the US social media company X.

The Swiss Foreign Ministry has rejected Israel's decision to advance settlement construction plans in the so-called E1 area, warning that the move undermines prospects for peace.

In a post on the US social media platform X, the ministry said: "Switzerland firmly rejects the Israeli decision to approve settlement construction plans in the E1 area near occupied East Jerusalem and calls on the authorities to withdraw this project."

"These plans are contrary to international law and undermine any prospect of lasting security and peace for both Israelis and Palestinians, based on the two-state solution," it added.

Months of warnings have fallen on deaf ears, and famine is now a reality in Gaza, the chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said, as a UN body of food security experts confirmed extreme scarcity of food in the enclave.

“Months of warnings have fallen on deaf ears. Famine is now confirmed in Gaza City,” Philippe Lazzarini said on the US social media company X.

“This is starvation by design and man-made by the Government of Israel. It is the direct result of banning food and other basic supplies for months, including from UNRWA."

More than 70 organisations in the UK have called for the bank account of a Scottish pro-Palestine group to be unfrozen.

Trade unions, charities, and other NGOs are among the 70 organisations that have called for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) bank account to be unfrozen.

The call came after the group said its funds were frozen by Unity Trust Bank last month, following the British government's ban on Palestine Action.

The group’s website apparently had a link to donate to Palestine Action, which was removed after the group was listed as a terrorist organisation, according to Scottish daily The National.

The Palestinian group Hamas called on Friday the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification famine confirmation in Gaza “important,” adding it arrived “very late following repeated warnings.”

“We have repeatedly warned that the policies of blockade, systematic starvation, and the denial of food, medicine, and water to our people constitute a full-fledged genocide. Today, UN reports confirm to the entire world the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe our people are experiencing,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

“The occupation’s criminal denial of this documented fact, and its false claims that there is no famine in Gaza, reveal a criminal mentality that deliberately lies to cover up the murder by starvation practised against children, women, and the sick, in flagrant defiance of all international laws and norms,” it added.

The resistance group also added that the international community “bears an urgent legal and moral responsibility to stop crimes against humanity and save more than two million people facing genocide, starvation, and the systematic destruction of all necessities of life”.

Save the Children has warned on Friday that at least 132,000 children under five in Gaza are at risk of death from acute malnutrition, as famine is officially confirmed in Gaza for the first time under Israeli blockade.

The group cited new findings from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which reported that more than 500,000 people – half of them children – are enduring “catastrophic hunger,” the worst level of the IPC scale.

The organisation said the crisis is deepening rapidly, with malnutrition among children doubling since May.

“The world has been watching as children have suffered the unthinkable for nearly two years in Gaza, and now, we have confirmation that hundreds of thousands are being slowly starved to death. None of us should accept this,” said Inger Ashing, Save the Children’s Chief Executive.

Ashing accused Israel of “using starvation as a weapon of war,” saying a limited trickle of aid only proves Israel “could end the food shortages whenever they choose.”

She warned that the effects of famine “cannot be reversed, especially for children.”

“In the first two weeks of August, well over half of pregnant women and new mothers screened at our clinics were malnourished – nearly seven times higher than before the siege began in March,” she said.

An Israeli drone strike on Friday killed one person in the southern border town of Aita al Shaab in Lebanon's Bint Jbeil district, the Health Ministry said.

On Thursday, a Lebanese man was killed when an Israeli drone targeted his motorcycle in the town of Deir Siryan, according to the state-run National News Agency.

Hours earlier, at least seven people were wounded in another Israeli drone strike on a car in the al-Housh area, east of the city of Tyre.

The World Health Organization chief warned on Friday that even mild illnesses are becoming deadly in Gaza after a food insecurity watchdog formally declared famine in the Gaza Governorate.

"This man-made, widespread malnutrition means that even common and usually mild diseases like diarrhoea are becoming fatal, especially for children," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the US social media company X.

Tedros called for swift action for the millions of people in the enclave, saying: "Gaza must be urgently supplied with food and medicines. Aid blockages must end!"