The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has issued a dire warning, confirming that over 50,000 Palestinian children under five currently suffer from acute malnutrition in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the study published by UNRWA in The Lancet established an alarming surge in child malnutrition rates coinciding directly with periods of Israeli blockade and severe restrictions on essential aid.
Israel enforced a blockade on Gaza in March that prevented the entry of food, water, fuel, medicine, and other essentials. During that period, almost 16% of children assessed by UNRWA were found to be malnourished. This is equivalent to more than 54,600 under-fives who need urgent nutrition and medical care, The Lancet reported.
However, among those were 12,800 severely malnourished children with “little chance of rehabilitation” due to the inadequate amounts of aid being allowed into Gaza and the collapse of the strip’s healthcare sector.
Famine Declaration and International Response
Furthermore, the UN declared famine in Gaza in August after months of Israeli restrictions had cut off food, water, and essential supplies to more than two million people. The World Food Program warned that the disaster was “unlike anything we have seen in this century.”
Additionally, US President Donald Trump in July admitted for the first time that children in Gaza were suffering from “real starvation.” “That’s real starvation stuff, I see it, and you can’t fake that,” Trump said. “We have to get the kids fed.”
Food Insecurity and Mortality
Consequently, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a global hunger monitor, defines famine as a situation in which “at least one in five households have an extreme lack of food and face starvation and destitution, resulting in extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition and death.”
At least 460 people have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza since October 2023, including 154 children, with hundreds more have died while seeking aid.
On Wednesday, a new hope emerged for the people of Gaza after Hamas and Israel agreed on the 20-point peace plan proposed by Trump drag on.
Dr. Masako Horino, nutrition epidemiologist and lead scientist for the UNRWA study, stated, “Following two years of war and severe restrictions in humanitarian aid, tens of thousands of preschool-aged children in the Gaza Strip are now suffering from preventable acute malnutrition and face an increased risk of mortality.”
Expert Warnings
Alarmingly, nutrition experts have expressed concern about the future health of Palestinian children. Dr. Akihiro Seita, UNRWA’s director of health and a senior author of the paper, warned that the children’s condition would get worse if the war in Gaza did not stop.
“Because the world has failed for so long to stop the war and prevent encroaching famine—despite having the capacity to do so—we must achieve a lasting cessation of the conflict and provide unimpeded, competent, international humanitarian nutritional, medical, economic, and social services. Otherwise, early childhood nutrition in the Gaza Strip will inevitably deteriorate further, and mortality will increase,” he stated.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed nearly 67,200 Palestinian people, most of them women and children.
