One in 10 children in Gaza malnourished, warns UN agency

One in every 10 children in Gaza screened by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is now malnourished, the agency warned. The alert came amid a worsening humanitarian crisis exacerbated by Israel’s continued blockade of aid to the territory since March 2, 2025.

Since January 2024, over 240,000 children under the age of five have been screened. Acute malnutrition, which was previously rare, is now widespread. As many as 5,119 children were diagnosed with acute malnutrition in May alone, according to UNICEF, including over 636 with severe acute cases—malnutrition’s most lethal form.

UNRWA said severe shortages of food, medicine, medical supplies, and hygiene supplies are pushing child malnutrition to critical levels. 

“As malnutrition among children spreads across the war-torn enclave, UNRWA has over 6,000 trucks of food, hygiene supplies, medicine, medical supplies outside of Gaza. They are all waiting to go in,” said the agency’s communications director, Juliette Touma.

Between May 27 and July 7, the UN Human Rights Office recorded the killings of 798 Palestinian civilians, including children, desperate to find food, at or near distribution sites and humanitarian convoys. Over the past 21 months, more than 17,000 children have reportedly been killed and 33,000 injured in Gaza.

In her briefing to the UN Security Council on July 16, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said: “An average of 28 children have been killed each day – the equivalent of an entire classroom. Consider that for a moment. A whole classroom of children killed, every day for nearly two years.”

She added that these children were not combatants but were “being killed and maimed” as they lined up for lifesaving food and medicine.

Aid workers say Israeli authorities have confiscated essential supplies like baby formula at entry points, and mothers, weakened by hunger, are reportedly unable to breastfeed. They are forced to resort to potentially unsafe alternatives like mixing beans and lentils with likely contaminated water to nourish their children.

UN experts and human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International accuse Israel of using starvation as a method of warfare.

Moreover, Gaza is most likely to face famine. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, released on May 12, classified 93% of Gaza’s population—1.95 million people—as facing crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity between April 1 and May 10, 2025.

Additionally, in a joint statement on July 12, the UN agencies have warned that the fuel shortage in Gaza has reached critical levels. without adequate fuel, they said, the organisations will likely be forced to halt operations entirely, which will further worsen the impact to essential life-sustaining services.

They urgently call for an immediate ceasefire and aid access.