Israeli officials are stridently rejecting new claims of famine in Gaza, amid an international outcry over the humanitarian crisis in the enclave that is being fueled by an intensified propaganda campaign by Hamas.

"As part of the negotiations, we see quite a few actions that Hamas is taking in order to resonate or create narratives in order to influence the negotiations," a security official told Walla News on Tuesday.

"These actions are being widely reported in the international media. Quite a few things are coming out of Hamas' Health Ministry. They are very quickly repainted and presented as the absolute truth."

In a joint statement Tuesday, 25 countries attacked Israel and said they "condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food."

Throughout the war, many international media outlets, including major institutions like The New York Times and BBC, have echoed claims attributed to Gazan "health authorities," often without clearly stating they are part of Hamas' governmental department.

Also on Tuesday, Hamas went public with some of its most radical claims so far, saying that 15 people, including four children, had died "due to famine and malnutrition" over the past day.

A senior Israeli security official responded to these claims Tuesday, telling the Times of Israel that after a "deep assessment" of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, including intelligence gathered from Palestinians, the military has "not identified starvation at this current point in time, but we understand that action is required to stabilize the humanitarian situation."

"Hamas causes the crisis, and we get the blame," Israel's ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

"We're not ignoring the suffering in Gaza – but the blame lies with Hamas, not Israel," said Danon, strongly rejecting claims of famine in Gaza.

"Look at the quantities of food entering through Kerem Shalom, through humanitarian convoys, through aid centers – there is a constant flow of food," he noted. "But Hamas hijacks aid, disrupts distribution, and prevents civilians from accessing relief – and then blames Israel."

According to COGAT, the IDF unit coordinating humanitarian activities in Gaza, the main obstacle for aid reaching the people of Gaza is the lack of distribution of some 950 truckloads that have been processed and are waiting to be picked up inside the strip.

"Recently, close to 4,500 trucks entered Gaza, including flour for bakeries and 2,500 tons of baby food and high-calorie special food for children. Over the past month, there has been a significant decline in the collection of humanitarian aid from the crossings by international aid organizations," COGAT said.

In the past month, an average of 71 trucks entered Gaza every day. "As of now, the contents of approximately 950 humanitarian aid trucks are awaiting collection on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings."

COGAT further explained that since aid was resumed May 19, after a break of around two weeks, the two primary channels for aid reaching Gaza have been sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and aid coordinated with the U.N., international organizations, and countries.

Speaking with the Times of Israel, the Israeli official said that the aid waiting to be picked up by the international organizations is enough to supply the enclave with two weeks' worth of food.

According to him, COGAT and U.N. officials recently discussed how the aid could be more effectively distributed, as most of its trucks have been looted by Gazan mobs on the way to the warehouses.

The U.S.- and Israeli-backed GHF has pleaded with other organizations to cooperate with it. In a recent statement, it said that the U.N., "has a capacity and operational problem" and called for "more collaboration" to deliver life-saving aid.

The aid groups have accused the GHF of indirectly causing Palestinian deaths, and argued that the Israeli military keeps rejecting requests to improve its distribution, such as Hamas police escorts or the entry of communication devices.

In the past, Hamas' security forces safely escorted aid trucks to the U.N.'s warehouses, where they were then looted and the aid distributed to Hamas fighters or sold back to the Gazan population, necessitating the creation of a new mechanism through the GHF.

The official reiterated that recent famine claims were part of Hamas' "cynical and timed move aimed at creating international pressure on Israel."

Ambassador to the U.N. Danon argued that the recent international drive to condemn Israel was not purely out of humanitarian concerns. "People see the images, they hear the outcry – but they don't check the facts," Danon said.

"That's why we're fighting not only on the battlefield, but in the arena of perception."

Asked about U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres' recent accusations that Israel is blocking access to aid, Danon hit back: "It's hypocrisy. From day one, the UN tried to undermine the Israeli National Relief Fund that was set up to provide direct aid to Gaza. They don't want Israel to succeed – they want control. Even if that means fewer Palestinians get fed."

This AllIsraelNews.com report was republished with permission.