After two years of war and dire food shortages, more than 54,600 children under the age of five in the Gaza Strip may be suffering from acute malnutrition, with more than 12,800 severely affected. new research By United Nations agencies.
By early August, about 16% of children in the Gaza Strip between the ages of six months and five years were suffering from a life-threatening form of malnutrition known as acute wasting, with nearly 4% of these cases accompanied by severe wasting, according to an analysis by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the region’s main health care provider for Palestinian refugees.
Wasting requires several weeks of treatment with a therapeutic diet and, in some cases, hospitalization.
The study, published Wednesday in the medical journal The Lancet, is the most comprehensive study of child hunger in the region to date, the authors said. It relied on the testing of around 220,000 children at dozens of health centers and medical facilities in Gaza between January and mid-August 2024.
“Tens of thousands of preschool children in the Gaza Strip are currently suffering from preventable acute malnutrition and face an increased risk of death,” Dr. Masako Horino, the study’s lead scientist, said in a statement.
FILE – Palestinian children gather to receive donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, September 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Al-Shurafi, File)
In a commentary accompanying the study, three child health, nutrition and public policy experts not involved in the study called this “some of the most definitive evidence” of the extent of malnutrition.
“It is now well established that children in Gaza are starving and in need of immediate and sustained humanitarian assistance,” wrote Jessica Fanzo of Columbia University, Paul Wise of Stanford University, and Zulfiqar Bhutta of Pakistan’s Aga Khan University and Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children.
food shortages and hunger
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the report Regarding wartime famine caused by the deadly Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, he said they were “lies” promoted by Hamas.
But experts and aid groups have been warning for months that Israel’s restrictions on food and aid to the Gaza Strip, as well as its relentless military offensive, are causing hunger, especially among children and pregnant women.
FILE – Sitting next to her husband Amin and their two children, Fatma Masih shows a photo of the body of her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Roa on her phone in a tent in Mwasi, southern Gaza Strip, on August 8, 2025. Doctors say the girl had no pre-existing conditions and died of severe malnutrition on August 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Daga)
The Gaza Ministry of Health announced that 461 people, including 157 children, have died from complications of malnutrition since the war began, with most of them dying in 2025. According to the ministry, hospitals are filling up with malnourished children amid a severe shortage of therapeutic food. The United Nations and many independent experts consider figures from the Ministry of Health, which is part of the Hamas-run government, to be the most reliable.
In this study, trained nurses used a calibrated tape to measure the children’s mid-upper arm circumference, a standard tool for assessing nutritional stress. Scientists say that very thin arms, measuring less than 125 millimeters (4.9 inches), correlate with very thin bodies.
limited assistance
Rates of malnutrition decreased during the period that aid was allowed to Gaza. 6 week ceasefire But when supplies were cut off for weeks or months at a time, children’s conditions worsened, the study found.
Israel restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war and imposed a full-scale siege for several weeks starting in March and lasting for more than two months. In May, aid began to be granted in small increments. controversial Supply system supported by the US and Israel The measures began in May and limited aid distribution to four locations around Gaza, requiring Palestinians to pass through Israeli military lines to receive aid. over 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in and around these locations, according to the United Nations
Edesia, a US-based nonprofit food aid organization, said it was able to send therapeutic food to Gaza. Founder Naveen Salem said the group shipped 1,500 boxes of the product on September 28 and plans to send nearly 15,000 boxes by air and sea next month.
FILE – Palestinian children receive donated food at a community kitchen in Deir al-Bala, central Gaza Strip, September 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
The study follows an August report by UN-backed food security experts. starvation confirmed In parts of Gaza. The world authority on food crises, the Integrated Food Security Tiering, had warned that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were facing catastrophic levels of hunger for months. Experts said a lack of data prevented an early declaration of famine.
The 21 United Nations Relief and Works Agency health workers killed in Gaza included two employees participating in a malnutrition screening program. Overall, more than 370 government employees have been killed in the conflict, the group said.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.
