Around 12,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, the highest monthly figure ever recorded in the territory, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
“In July, nearly 12,000 children under five years were identified as having acute malnutrition in Gaza,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva on Thursday. “This is the highest monthly figure ever recorded.”
From January to 29 July, at least 99 people have died from hunger-related causes, including 35 children, 29 of whom were under five. Between June and July, malnutrition admissions almost doubled from 6,344 to 11,877, according to UNICEF data. More than 2,500 of those cases involve severe malnutrition.
The WHO said it is supporting Gaza’s four malnutrition treatment centres, but supplies of baby formula and therapeutic food remain critically low. “The overall volume of nutrition supplies remains completely insufficient to prevent further deterioration,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian Territory. “The market needs to be flooded. There needs to be dietary diversity.”
The crisis comes amid severely restricted humanitarian access. A global hunger monitor has warned that famine conditions are unfolding, with starvation spreading and child deaths rising.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that food consumption in Gaza has fallen to its lowest level since the war began. Eighty-one percent of households now report poor food consumption, compared with 33 percent in April.
In Khan Younis and other areas, residents queue for charity kitchen meals as aid groups warn that without sustained, large-scale relief via all possible routes, Gaza’s hunger crisis will deepen further.
