One in five people in the Gaza Strip are facing starvation as the entire territory edges closer to famine, a new United Nations-backed report warns, after nearly three months of Israel’s blockade of critically needed humanitarian aid.

Israel’s government has publicly dismissed warnings of extreme food shortages after it blocked aid deliveries, but an internal analysis concluded that a crisis looms if food supplies are not restored.

Israeli Consul General in New York Ofir Akunis argued that Gaza could one day emerge in the style of the United Arab Emirates, a nation whose coastal desert cities, including Duba