The number of malnourished children in the Gaza Strip is rising at an alarming rate, with 5,119 children between 6 months and 5 years of age admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone.
According to data received from the UNICEF-supported nutrition centres across the Gaza Strip, this represents a nearly 50 per cent increase from the 3,444 children admitted in April 2025 and a 150 per cent increase from February when a ceasefire was in effect and aid was entering the Gaza Strip in significant quantities.
Of the 5,119 children admitted in May, 636 children have severe acute malnutrition (SAM), the most lethal form of malnutrition. These children need consistent, supervised treatment, safe water, and medical care to survive – all of which are increasingly scarce in Gaza today. The number of children with SAM has surged 146 per cent since February.
“In just 150 days, from the start of the year until the end of May, 16,736 children – an average of 112 children a day – have been admitted for treatment for malnutrition in the Gaza Strip,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder. “Every one of these cases is preventable. The food, water, and nutrition treatments they desperately need are being blocked from reaching them. Man-made decisions that are costing lives. Israel must urgently allow the large-scale delivery of life-saving aid through all border crossings.”
If the situation does not change immediately, UNICEF warns cases of acute malnutrition are likely to continue to rise in coming weeks and could reach the highest level since the beginning of the conflict. This is among a population of children where wasting was non-existent 20 months ago.
UNICEF has been able to deliver hundreds of pallets of supplies to prevent and treat malnutrition in the last three weeks, but these supplies are wholly inadequate and insufficient compared to the tremendous needs and broader context. The amount of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic-Food (RUTF), a lifesaving essential for children suffering from acute levels of malnutrition, is running critically low.
The conflict has damaged or destroyed essential water, sanitation, and health systems in the Gaza Strip, and has limited the ability to treat severe malnutrition, with just 127 of 236 treatment centres remaining functional, due to displacement orders and incessant bombardments.
Meanwhile, the United Nations is on the verge of running out of fuel. Since the end of the ceasefire, the humanitarian community has repeatedly been denied the ability to bring in new stocks or access to existing stocks inside Gaza.
This has direct consequences for children and their families, because without fuel, essential services like water production and health services will have to stop or use unsafe water. Already, acute watery diarrhea now accounts for 1 in every 4 cases of disease recorded in Gaza, and there are suspected cases of hepatitis A, which is highly infectious and quickly kills. As the weather warms in coming weeks, this is only expected to worsen.
Taken together and left untreated, malnutrition and disease create a deadly cycle. Evidence has shown that children with poor nutrition are more vulnerable to serious disease like acute diarrhea, while acute and prolonged diarrhea seriously exacerbates poor health and malnutrition in children, putting them at high risk of death.
“This is an urgent warning. Concerted action is immediately needed to stop starvation from escalating, malnutrition from rising, disease from spreading, water from running dry, and ultimately, to prevent mounting, wholly preventable child deaths,” said Beigbeder. “Humanitarian aid and commercial goods must be allowed to enter, from all available crossings, and be delivered quickly, safely and with dignity to families in need wherever they are.”
UNICEF is once again urging all parties to the conflict to end the violence, protect civilians, including children, respect international humanitarian law and human rights law, allow the immediate provision of humanitarian aid, and release all hostages.
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