Israel mandates further evacuations in northern Gaza, where UN reports 1 in 6 children suffer from malnutrition

UN Warns of Impending Child Deaths in Gaza due to Severe Food Shortages and Widespread Disease

On Monday, the United Nations issued a stark warning about the escalating crisis in Gaza, where a combination of food scarcity, rising malnutrition, and rampant disease could lead to a surge in child fatalities.

After twenty weeks of conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, UN agencies cautioned that access to food and clean water had become extremely limited in the Palestinian enclave. Nearly all young children were reported to be suffering from infectious ailments.

Ted Chaiban, UNICEF’s deputy head of humanitarian action, expressed grave concern, stating, “The Gaza Strip is on the brink of a crisis in preventable child deaths, exacerbating the already intolerable level of child mortality in Gaza.”

A joint assessment by UN agencies specializing in children, food, and health revealed that approximately 90 percent of children under five in Gaza were afflicted by one or more infectious diseases. The assessment also found that 70 percent of these children had experienced diarrhea within the preceding two weeks, marking a drastic increase compared to statistics from 2022.

Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies director, emphasized the perilous situation, noting, “Hunger and disease form a deadly combination. Children who are hungry weakened, and deeply traumatized are more susceptible to illness, especially diarrheal diseases, which impair nutrient absorption.”

Israel’s offensive in Gaza launched in response to an attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, resulted in casualties on both sides, with a significant number of civilian deaths, according to official figures.

Since the onset of the conflict, Gaza has been grappling with a severe nutrition crisis exacerbated by limited external aid. The UN assessment revealed alarming statistics, indicating that over 15 percent of children under two in northern Gaza—equivalent to one in six children—were suffering from acute malnutrition, while three percent faced life-threatening severe wasting. In southern Gaza, five percent of children under two were also acutely malnourished.

Prior to the conflict, only 0.8 percent of children under five in Gaza were classified as acutely malnourished, underscoring the unprecedented decline in the region’s nutritional status within a mere three months, according to the UN agencies.

The situation remains dire, with the UN warning that conditions may have further deteriorated since the assessment conducted in January.