Child malnutrition in Gaza tripled in under six months: UNRWA
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) says nearly one in every three Palestinian children in Gaza City is now malnourished – six times higher than the rate before Israel broke the ceasefire.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini also said that child malnutrition has tripled across the Gaza Strip in less than six months.
“This is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made, preventable starvation,” Lazzarini wrote in a post on X.
“The Agency’s warehouses in Egypt & Jordan have aid that could fill 6,000 trucks— including three months worth of food. Again & again, I appeal to let life-saving aid in through @UNRWA + other humanitarian organisations,” he wrote.
“If not, more children will continue to die.”
🚨Alarming new data from @UNRWA clinics in #Gaza:
Since March, nearly 100,000 children under the age of 5 screened by @UNRWA
➡️ In less than 6 months, child malnutrition tripled across the Gaza Strip.
➡️ In Gaza City, nearly 1 in every 3 children is now malnourished—X 6…
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) August 20, 2025
Abdullah, suffering from malnutrition was evacuated to Turkiye, but it was too late
The fluorescent lights of Adana City Training and Research Hospital cast harsh shadows across Hamed Abu Zerka’s gaunt face as he stands beside his six-month-old daughter’s hospital bed. The 34-year-old’s weathered hands tremble as he adjusts Habiba’s blanket.
Abdullah, his four-and-a-half-year-old son, died on Tuesday morning in this same room, his small body finally succumbing to the malnutrition that had been slowly consuming him for months as Israel laid siege to Gaza.
The family became emblems of the Israel-imposed famine on Gaza’s 2.1 million people when a video of Abdullah went viral weeks ago, the clearly malnourished child screaming in hunger, asking for food, as his mother wept helplessly. Their story captured international attention and prompted the medical evacuation that brought them to Turkiye, which seemed like salvation – but came too late for Abdullah.
Basma Abu Zerka, 30, sits in the corner holding a small bundle of her son’s clothes. She speaks little, crying silently. “We lost our child. We’re living through tremendous pain,” Hamed says, his voice raw.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/20/abdullah-left-gaza-for-treatment-in-turkiye-but-it-was-too-late
