Nearly 55,000 children under five in Gaza are estimated to be malnourished, with at least 12,800 suffering from severe cases, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has said.
A study published in The Lancet found unprecedented increases in levels of child malnutrition across the strip coincided with periods of Israeli blockade and severe aid restrictions.
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 per cent of children assessed by UNRWA were found to be malnourished, it said. This is equivalent to more than 54,600 under-fives who need urgent nutrition and medical care, The Lancet reported.
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, it added.
The UN declared famine in August after months of Israeli restrictions had cut off food, water and essential supplies to more than two million people in Gaza. The World Food Programme warned that the disaster was “unlike anything we have seen in this century”.
Israel's blockade was documented in a UN commission report concluding genocide in Gaza and detailing genocidal acts and intent by Israeli officials and military.
The report says repeated warnings of an aid crisis by humanitarian agencies failed to prompt a change of policy from Israel. “The commission therefore finds that Israeli authorities knowingly and deliberately inflicted such conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza,” it said.
In Gaza city, where Israel has launched a major ground assault to seize control of the area, cases of child malnutrition increased sixfold between March and August this year, data indicates.
In July, US President Donald Trump admitted for the first time that children in Gaza were suffering from “real starvation”, amid mounting international criticism of Israel's actions in the strip. “That’s real starvation stuff, I see it, and you can’t fake that,” Mr Trump said. “We have to get the kids fed.”
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”. Its assessments are a critical tool used by the international community to identify and tackle famine conditions worldwide.
In an analysis published in May, the IPC projected that the entire population of the Gaza Strip would face high levels of acute food insecurity by September, including half a million people facing catastrophic levels, characterised by an extreme lack of food, starvation, destitution and death.
At least 460 people have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza since October 2023, including 154 children, the Palestinian Health Ministry says. Hundreds more have been killed while seeking aid.
On Tuesday, Israel's devastating war on Gaza entered its third year, with no sense of respite as ceasefire talks on a 20-point peace plan proposed by Mr Trump drag on.
"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," said Dr Masako Horino, nutrition epidemiologist and lead scientist for the UNRWA study.
Unicef last week said Palestinian children were the "only victim" of what UN experts, human rights groups and scholars have described as genocide.
