DaysofPal – The World Health Organization (WHO) has sounded the alarm over the escalating hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip, revealing that nearly 12,000 children under the age of five are suffering from acute malnutrition — the highest number ever recorded in a single month.
“In July, nearly 12,000 children under five years were identified as having acute malnutrition in Gaza, the highest monthly figure ever recorded,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Thursday during a press briefing at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.
Since the start of the year and up to July 29, at least 99 people — including 64 adults and 35 children — have died from hunger-related causes. Among the children, 29 were under the age of five.
Between June and July, the number of children admitted for malnutrition nearly doubled — jumping from 6,344 to 11,877 — according to the latest data from UNICEF. Of those, approximately 2,500 are suffering from severe acute malnutrition, putting them at even greater risk of death and long-term health complications.
Tedros urged for the immediate and sustained delivery of aid into Gaza using all available routes.
The WHO, which supports four malnutrition centers in Gaza, warned that critical supplies like baby formula and therapeutic foods are running dangerously low.
“The overall volume of nutrition supplies remains completely insufficient to prevent further deterioration. The market needs to be flooded.
There needs to be dietary diversity,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative for the occupied Palestinian Territory, speaking via video link.
Global hunger monitoring agencies have echoed WHO’s warnings, stating that Gaza is now in the midst of a famine scenario. Starvation is spreading, children are dying, and humanitarian access to the besieged enclave remains severely restricted due to ongoing military operations.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that food consumption levels across Gaza have plummeted to their lowest point since the war began.
Eighty-one percent of households in the densely populated territory — home to 2.2 million people — reported poor food consumption in recent weeks, a sharp increase from just 33 percent back in April.
With widespread destruction, blocked aid routes, and the collapse of basic services, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues to worsen by the day — with children bearing the brunt of the devastation.
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