NEW YORK, August 8, 2025 (WAFA) – The United Nations said on Thursday that malnutrition rates in the Gaza Strip, including among children, were ‘alarmingly high’.
Speaking in a daily press briefing in New York, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said that “starvation and malnutrition, especially among children, continue to deepen. Our partners working in nutrition report that acute malnutrition among children in Gaza has reached the highest levels recorded to date.”
“In July alone, nearly 12,000 children aged 6 to 59 months were identified as acutely malnourished out of 136,000 screened. Of these, over 2,500 children suffer from severe acute malnutrition — the most life-threatening form. Forty children required hospitalization in stabilization centres,” he elaborated.
He revealed that the proportion of children with severe acute malnutrition is rising. In June and July, 18 per cent of all acutely malnourished children had severe acute malnutrition, compared with 12 per cent between March and May.
Blasting the occupation authorities for the constraints they have been imposing on humanitarian access, Haq said that In July, our partners were only able to reach 3 per cent — or 8,700 — of the 290,000 children under the age of five who require feeding and micronutrient supplements. This is due to the severe shortage of lipid-based nutrient supplements entering Gaza.
Commenting on the distribution of other key nutrition supplies for children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, Haq said that it had also declined sharply, noting that UN partners working in nutrition reiterated that the overall volume of nutrition supplies entering Gaza remains far below what is needed to prevent a further deterioration of the nutrition situation.
Moving to Israeli restrictions on the entry of shelters to the Strip, Haq said that more than 1 million shelter items and 2.3 million items, such as tents, tarps, and sealing-off materials, have been procured and are currently stranded in Jordan and Egypt, as Israeli occupation authorities have not approved their entry.
“No shelter materials have entered Gaza since 2 March, despite the immense needs,” he stressed.
He added that existing stocks are fully depleted, and the shelter crisis continues to worsen. Most families in Gaza are living in severely overcrowded, unsafe, and undignified conditions, some with no shelter at all.
He cited an assessment in July of 44 displacement sites in Gaza City that found that 43 sites — almost all — had families with no shelter. Eleven percent of more than 6,500 surveyed households were reported to be living out in the open. The shelter situation is also further deteriorating due to ongoing bombardment, displacement orders and insecurity, which continue to displace families and disrupt humanitarian operations.
He reiterated that tactical pauses launched by the occupation authorities in their aggression do not allow for the continuous flow of humanitarian aid required to meet the immense needs levels in Gaza.
“Overall, since the Israeli announcement of the tactical pause to allow safe passages for our convoys, our colleagues tell us that realities on the ground remain largely the same. Aid that has entered remains by far insufficient and our convoys continue to face impediments on their way to delivering aid,” he said.
Commenting on fuel supplies, Haq said: “While limited quantities of fuel have been entering Gaza over the past week, fuel supplies remain critically limited and unpredictable, significantly undermining the ability of humanitarian partners to deliver and sustain lifesaving services.”
He reiterated the need for “unimpeded and predictable humanitarian access into and within Gaza, in parallel with the flow of commercial goods.”
K.F.
