The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a devastating new level, with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting that at least 400 people have died from malnutrition so far this year — including 101 children, 80 of whom were under the age of five.
According to Dr. Rana Abu Zaatir, Head of Therapeutic Nutrition at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, the situation is worsening daily.
“We are now seeing severe malnutrition not only among children under five, but also in those aged five to twelve,” Dr. Zaatir said. “Even infants as young as two months are arriving with critical complications.”
Only four malnutrition stabilization centers remain operational across Gaza, and food aid to the northern regions has been cut off for weeks, creating what aid workers describe as a catastrophic nutrition emergency. Therapeutic food supplies are running dangerously low, and prices for basic goods continue to skyrocket due to ongoing border closures and restricted humanitarian access.
“Large numbers of children and adults have already died,” Dr. Zaatir warned. “If crossings remain closed and food prices continue to rise, we will face a real disaster.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) acknowledged on Monday that humanitarian access has slightly improved in some areas of Gaza, but emphasized that northern Gaza remains largely unreachable. The agency reiterated that a ceasefire is essential to restore aid delivery at a scale sufficient to prevent further deaths.
Currently, around 500,000 people in the Gaza City area are living in famine conditions, according to UN-backed experts.
The mounting death toll from hunger underscores the scale of Gaza’s humanitarian breakdown — a crisis driven by war, siege, and the near-total collapse of public infrastructure. Without immediate and unrestricted aid access, health officials warn, malnutrition could become Gaza’s next major killer.
