The leading international authority on food crises says the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza" and it predicts “widespread death” without immediate action.

Famine fears and the new death toll are grim milestones in a conflict that began almost two years ago when Hamas attacked Israel.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has passed 60,000.

The world’s leading authority on hunger said that a ‘worst-case scenario of famine’ was developing in Gaza, though stopped short of a formal famine declaration. NBC News’ Matt Bradley reports.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private U.S.- and Israeli-backed group, said it has distributed over 96 million meals since late May, in boxes of staples such as rice, flour, pasta, tuna, beans, biscuits and cooking oil.

The United Nations’ World Food Program said July 27 that one-third of Palestinians in Gaza are not eating for days-long stretches. The World Health Organization reported 63 maln

France will air-drop aid into Gaza in coming days, a diplomatic source quoted by French news agency AFP said on Tuesday. The move comes as UN-backed experts warned the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory is slipping into famine.