Over 50,000 Palestinian children in Gaza are suffering from "acute malnutrition' due to the ongoing Israeli war, UNICEF reported, urging an immediate ceasefire to prevent a looming famine in the besieged area.

UNICEF’s Director of Child Nutrition and Development, Victor Aguayo, stated on Thursday, “We estimate that well over 50,000 children suffer from acute malnutrition and need lifesaving treatment, now.”

His comments follow warnings from the UN’s food agencies, FAO and WFP, which have called the situation in Gaza “one of the most severe food and nutrition crises in history.”

“It’s important to remember that nearly half of Gaza’s population who are suffering this devastation are children,” Aguayo emphasized.

Reflecting on his recent visit to Gaza, he said, “I saw how months of war on civilians and severe restrictions to humanitarian response have led to a collapse of the food, health, and protection systems, with catastrophic consequences for children’s nutrition.”

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Aguayo noted that young children’s diets are “extremely poor", with “over 90 percent of them eating at best two types of food per day – day in, day out – for weeks and months in a context of toxic stress and lack of access to safe water and sanitation.”

He also warned that “the risk of famine and a large-scale severe nutrition crisis in Gaza is real,” adding, “There is only one way to prevent it: we need a ceasefire, immediately, and with a ceasefire, sustained and large-scale humanitarian access to the entire Gaza Strip.”

The UNICEF official emphasized that a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian aid would enable families to obtain food, including specialized nutrition for young children and supplements for pregnant women, as well as access essential health, water, and sanitation services for the entire population.

Malnutrition tighten death grip on Gaza children 

The number of cases of malnutrition among children in northern Gaza rose by almost 300% in July as compared to May, a report released in August by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) revealed.

It stated that 96% of Gaza's population suffers from crisis levels of hunger, citing data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the Global Nutrition Cluster.

At least 34 children in Gaza have already died from malnutrition as of June 22, according to the government media office. The actual number may be higher due to restricted access to Gaza, which has hindered aid agencies' ability to fully evaluate the situation. 

In short, months of severe hunger have resulted in the deaths of numerous Palestinians in Gaza and have inflicted lasting harm on children due to malnutrition, all transpiring prior to the official declaration of famine.