‘They are wasting away’: Gaza’s children face mass starvation

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
9 Oct 2025 08:17

A new UNRWA-led study published in The Lancet reveals that over 55,000 children in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, linking the crisis directly to Israeli aid restrictions.

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Yazan Abu Ful, a 2-year-old malnourished boy, stands shirtless for a photo at his family's home in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Wednesday, July 23, 2025 (AP)

Nearly 55,000 children in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, a figure far exceeding official tallies, according to a new study published in The Lancet, one of the world’s most respected medical journals.

The research, released on Wednesday and led by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), provides a month-by-month analysis of the two-year war, revealing for the first time a direct correlation between "Israel’s" restrictions on aid entry and escalating rates of child malnutrition in the enclave.

"Israel" has consistently rejected responsibility for hunger in Gaza, maintaining that sufficient food is allowed into the territory and accusing humanitarian organizations of inefficiency.

Dr. Akihiro Seita, UNRWA’s director of health and a co-author of the study, warned that more children would die unless fighting ceased and aid was allowed to flow freely. “Unimpeded, competent, international humanitarian nutritional, medical, economic, and social services” were urgently needed, he said.

The study concluded that two years of war had resulted in “enormous nutritional consequences” for tens of thousands of children. Researchers analyzed arm circumference measurements of 220,000 children aged between six months and five years, collected between January 2024 and August 2025, when a UN-backed panel formally declared famine in parts of Gaza.

Wider context

In early 2024, about 5% of children showed signs of wasting, a key indicator of malnutrition. That figure rose to nearly 9% six months later. Following the imposition of severe aid restrictions by "Israel" at the end of 2024, wasting nearly doubled by January 2025.

A brief six-week ceasefire that allowed more humanitarian aid into Gaza brought some improvement, but conditions worsened again after "Israel" enforced an 11-week blockade beginning in March. Although restrictions were eased in May 2025, wasting levels among children surged to nearly 16%, with almost a quarter suffering from severe acute malnutrition, the most life-threatening form of the condition.

Researchers estimated that across Gaza, more than 54,600 children under six now require urgent nutrition and medical support, including 12,800 who are severely wasted.

Between May and July, more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed while seeking humanitarian assistance, including 859 near facilities run by the US- and "Israel"-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and 514 along food convoy routes, according to UN data. The UN attributed most of the killings to Israeli occupation forces.

Aid organizations say Israeli restrictions continue to block the entry of most supplies, while ongoing military operations have made it nearly impossible to deliver assistance safely or effectively.

Gaza's unfolding humanitarian disaster

Dr. Masako Horino, a nutrition epidemiologist at UNRWA and the study’s lead author, said that even before the war, many Palestinian refugee children in Gaza were already “food insecure” but only slightly underweight.

“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,” Horino said.

Pediatric and public health experts have described the study as a landmark in documenting Gaza’s unfolding humanitarian disaster. In an accompanying commentary, The Lancet contributors Zulfiqar Bhutta, Jessica Fanzo, and Paul Wise wrote: “It is now well established that the children of Gaza are starving and require immediate and sustained humanitarian assistance. The study by Horino and colleagues provides some of the most definitive evidence to date of this effect.”

Bhutta, of Canada’s Hospital for Sick Children, Fanzo of Columbia University, and Wise of Stanford University commended the researchers for presenting scientific proof of “grievous, preventable harm to children.”

“These temporal data strongly suggest that restrictions on food and assistance have resulted in severe malnutrition among children in the Gaza Strip, a reality that will undoubtedly impact their future health and development outcomes for generations,” they wrote.

The experts added that while global attention has focused on immediate starvation, there should be “serious concern” about the long-term health effects, including heightened risks of chronic non-communicable diseases.

Responding to the study, COGAT said Tuesday it “continues to support international organizations facilitating food delivery and production for Gaza’s civilian population.”

Rafah experienced a fourfold increase in wasting malnutrition

The data showed that Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, experienced a fourfold increase in wasting malnutrition following "Israel’s" major military offensive that leveled much of the area. Rates briefly fell in April 2025 during the short-lived ceasefire.

In Gaza City, wasting rates rose more than fivefold from March 2025, reaching nearly 30% by mid-August.

James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson, described harrowing scenes in Gaza City last week: “There is a lot of panic, a lot of very hungry people,” he said. “It is very difficult to describe the levels of desperation there. There are tens of thousands of children. About two-thirds of people just can’t leave. There are pregnant women eating a meal a day. More aid trucks are coming in but it is a fraction of what we need.”

UNRWA, founded in 1949 to provide services to Palestinian refugees displaced by the wars surrounding "Israel’s" creation, has been banned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who accused the agency of being “perforated by Hamas.” UNRWA denied the allegations and was subsequently cleared by UN investigators.