By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -Famine has struck an area of Gaza and will likely spread over the next month, a global hunger monitor determined on Friday, an assessment that will escalate pressure on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into the war-torn Palestinian enclave.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification system said 514,000 people – nearly a quarter of Palestinians in Gaza – are experiencing famine and that was due to rise to 641,000 by the end of September.

Some 280,000 of those people are in a northern region covering Gaza City – known as Gaza governorate – which the IPC said was in famine, its first such determination in the enclave. The rest are in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis – central and southern areas that the IPC projected would be in famine

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