More than 7,000 children under the age of five were put on recovery programmes for acute malnutrition at clinics run by Unicef in Gaza in just two weeks last month, figures reveal.

The overall total for August is being compiled by Unicef but is expected to exceed 15,000 new patients, more than seven times the total in February.

A famine was declared in Gaza City, in the north of the devastated territory, last month, but other towns farther south are “fast catching up”, officials from the agency said.

“On the ground, it is crystal clear that people are starving, that there is a famine unfolding in Gaza City, and Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis [two southern cities in Gaza] are not far behind,” said Tess Ingram, a spokesperson with Unicef who has spent recent days in Gaza City.