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Gaza’s Children Are Starving: UN Warns of Growing Hunger Crisis

By Tidbit News Desk
Published: July 16, 2025
Category: Health / Conflict / Middle East

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The Alarming Numbers

The humanitarian situation in Gaza is worsening fast. According to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), 1 out of every 10 children screened in Gaza is now malnourished. This means these children are not getting enough food and nutrients to stay healthy or grow properly.

Before the war, cases like this were rare in Gaza. Today, it’s becoming common—and it's not by accident. UNRWA’s chief Philippe Lazzarini described the situation as “man-made”, caused by Israel’s ongoing blockade, which is stopping vital food and medical supplies from entering the territory.

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What UN Officials Are Saying

Philippe Lazzarini urged world leaders to stop ignoring what is happening. He said the blockade is causing "severe shortages" of nutrition supplies, and many children are dying just trying to access food. He called the hunger crisis a result of engineered suffering and said every day without a ceasefire means more child deaths.

UNRWA’s communications chief Juliette Touma also raised the alarm, reporting from Amman that essential items like medicine, baby food, hygiene materials, and fuel are running out fast. Gaza’s health workers are now seeing extreme cases of child malnutrition they’ve only read about in textbooks before.

A Palestinian boy diagnosed with malnutrition, according to doctors, lies in a bed receiving treatment at the ICU of Nasser Hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on December 7, 2024 [Mohammed Salem/Reuters]

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Aid Trucks Are Waiting—But Blocked

Right now, over 6,000 trucks filled with food, medicine, and hygiene items are sitting outside Gaza. They are ready to go in and help families, but Israeli restrictions are preventing most of the aid from entering. UNRWA says they are waiting for approval to deliver the assistance at a large scale.

The United Nations is asking Israel to allow humanitarian access immediately to prevent more deaths.

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First-Hand Testimony from Gaza

Andee Clark Vaughan, a nurse with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA), shared her experience from inside Gaza. She said that Israeli authorities confiscated baby formula from medical workers who tried to bring it into Gaza.

Mothers are too weak from hunger to produce breast milk, and without formula, they have nothing to feed their babies. Some women are mixing unsafe water with beans or lentils just to create something to feed their children. But this is dangerous—Gaza’s water is often contaminated, and children’s immune systems are already weakened by hunger.

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More Than Just Numbers

Since January 2024, UNRWA has screened over 240,000 children under five. These screenings confirm that acute malnutrition is spreading rapidly across the Gaza Strip.

This is not just a health issue. It is a human rights crisis—and according to UN experts, possibly part of a wider pattern that could be investigated as crimes against humanity.

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A Political Block on Humanitarian Relief

Much of the aid to Gaza is being coordinated through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by Israel and the U.S. But the distribution system has been criticized for being slow, unfair, and ineffective.

More than 870 Palestinians have died while trying to reach food distribution points. Many of these deaths happened during Israeli military operations or chaotic food handouts, where people were killed in stampedes or by security forces.

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Global Response So Far: Too Little, Too Late?

The world is watching—but not acting quickly enough. International bodies, including the UN, are calling for immediate unrestricted humanitarian access and a long-lasting ceasefire to stop the suffering.

Meanwhile, critics say powerful nations are doing more talking than acting. The situation keeps getting worse, and children are paying the highest price.

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What Needs to Happen Now

UNRWA is calling on all governments, especially those supporting Israel, to push for urgent access for aid and to prioritize the lives of Gaza’s children over political goals. They emphasize that this is not a natural disaster—it is a preventable tragedy being allowed to unfold.

Every hour that passes without action means more children falling sick, more parents forced into impossible choices, and more deaths that could have been stopped.

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Final Thoughts

The malnutrition crisis in Gaza is one of the most pressing humanitarian issues in the world right now. The numbers are staggering. The stories are heartbreaking. But above all, this is a crisis that can be solved—if the world chooses to act.

We must listen to the nurses, the aid workers, the parents, and the children themselves. Their message is clear: “The world cannot continue to look away.”

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📸 Photo Credit

Image Credit: Mohammed Salem / Reuters via Al Jazeera
Original report on Al Jazeera

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