Israel has hit back against a UN-backed report that warned of imminent famine in Gaza, alleging the assessment contained inaccuracies and questionable sources.
The analysis released last week fuelled international concern by saying half of Gazans are feeling "catastrophic" hunger and projecting a possible famine in the territory's north.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership estimated that 1.1 million people, half the population, according to UN figures, were facing dire conditions.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths called for Israel to allow unfettered access for aid to the besieged Palestinian territory.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, said Israel "recognises the unfortunate impacts of the war on the civilian population of Gaza".
But it added that Israel does not operate food distribution in Gaza and accused UN agencies of being unable to handle the quantity of aid arriving daily.
"At any given moment there are hundreds of trucks held up at the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing after having completely been processed by the authorities in Israel," the COGAT reply said.
Israel has tense relations with some UN agencies, particularly the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, which reported last week that Israel had barred it from making aid distributions in northern Gaza.
COGAT also questioned the accuracy of a line in the report that says a daily average of 500 trucks,150 of them food trucks, arrived in Gaza before the war compared with 60 food trucks a day since.
"Pre-war, only an average of 70 daily trucks carried food," COGAT countered, without providing a source.
Israel said it has placed no limit on the volume of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza.
Earlier, a senior US State Department official said famine is quite possibly present in parts of northern Gaza and added that a scarcity of trucks was an obstacle to getting more aid into the Palestinian enclave.
"While we can say with confidence that famine is a significant risk in the south and centre but not present, in the north, it is both a risk and quite possibly is present in at least some areas," the official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.
US officials have acknowledged Gaza is facing a humanitarian catastrophe, but few have offered an assessment on the risk of famine.
The US was working with its partners and the international community to help acquire or help the United Nations acquire additional trucks to be used to distribute aid, the official said.
The official cited improvement for both south and central Gaza and marginally for the north, which has been harder to reach for aid trucks due to increased criminal activity and lawlessness throughout last month.
The number of trucks distributing aid in south and central Gaza had nearly topped 200 a day, an increase compared to a month ago, but more were needed, the official said.
In the north, there have been deliveries of around 350-400 trucks a day over the past few weeks of aid privately contracted and that has been the most significant aid shipment to that part of the enclave since war began on 7 October, the official said.
But the aid flow through Gate 96, a new entry point for the north, had yet to settle into a routine. "It is not at that point yet. But that is what we are working on," he said.
Approved driver shortage was also an issue in the north, the official said. "Because this is a route that goes in Israel ... they have to be carefully vetted."
US President Joe Biden has resisted pressure from human rights groups and some fellow Democrats to condition further military aid on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding off on a threatened offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians are sheltering.
The US has been briefed "on some aspects of the plan," the official said, but it has yet to see a comprehensive one.
Netanyahu approves new talks on ceasefire
Mr Netanyahu earlier approved new talks on a Gaza ceasefire, a day after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to ensure urgent humanitarian aid reaches people in the Palestinian territory.
But despite a binding United Nations Security Council resolution this week demanding an "immediate ceasefire", fighting has continued, including around hospitals.
Regional fallout from the conflict also flared, with Israel saying it killed a Hezbollah rocket commander in Lebanon, and several Hezbollah fighters killed in Syria strikes that a war monitor blamed on Israel.
Mr Netanyahu's office said new talks on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release will take place in Doha and Cairo "in the coming days... with guidelines for moving forward in the negotiations", days after they appeared stalled.
In its order, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague said: "Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine, but... famine is setting in."
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, posted on X that the ruling was "a stark reminder that the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza strip is man made + worsening".
The court had ruled in January that Israel must facilitate "urgently needed" humanitarian aid to Gaza and prevent genocidal acts, but Israel rejected the case brought by South Africa.
The latest binding ICJ ruling, which has little means of enforcement, came as Israel's military said today that it was continuing operations in Al-Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, for a 12th day.
Throughout the coastal territory, dozens of people were killed overnight, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said.
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Among the dead were 12 people killed in a home in the southern city of Rafah, which has been regularly bombed ahead of a mooted Israeli ground operation there.
Men worked under the light of mobile phones to free people trapped under debris after an air strike, AFPTV images showed.
The ICJ ordered Israel to "take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay" the supply "of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance".
The war began with Hamas's 7 October attack that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Israel's retaliatory campaign to destroy Hamas has killed at least 32,623 people, mostly women and children, Gaza's health ministry says.
Large parts of the territory have been reduced to rubble, and most of Gaza's population are now sheltering in Rafah.
On Monday the UN Security Council demanded an "immediate ceasefire" in Gaza, the release of hostages held by militants, and "ensuring humanitarian access".
Member states are obliged to abide by such resolutions, but the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity said nothing has changed on the ground.
Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required have been allowed in since October, when Israel placed Gaza under near-total siege.
Israel has blamed shortages on the Palestinian side, namely a lack of capacity to distribute aid, with humanitarians saying not enough trucks are allowed in to make deliveries.
With limited ground access, several nations have staged airdrops, and a sea corridor from Cyprus has delivered its first food aid.
