Gaza: UNRWA’s Lancet Study Reveals Alarming Surge in Child Malnutrition, Underscores IPC Famine Confirmation

AMMAN,

A new study published today in The Lancet by UNRWA and partners reinforces the confirmation by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) of famine in Gaza City and adds the clearest evidence yet of how child malnutrition has evolved during the war, in line with restrictions on humanitarian aid.

The study provides the first month-by-month analysis of acute malnutrition during the war in the Gaza Strip, showing sharp rises after aid restrictions towards the end of 2024 and an 11-week total siege from March to May 2025. More than 54,600 children are now acutely malnourished and face increased risk of death if untreated, further underscoring the extent of the humanitarian catastrophe and the need for immediate, unimpeded aid.

"Tens of thousands of young children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from preventable malnutrition, disease, and increased risk of death, as a consequence of the ongoing war. Without a lasting ceasefire and peace, this human suffering will continue," said Dr Akihiro Seita, Director of UNRWA's Health Department and senior author of the study.

From January 2024 to mid-August 2025, UNRWA health staff screened nearly 220,000 children for malnutrition. That represents about two-thirds of the 346,000 children aged between six months and almost five years in the Gaza Strip.

During the 20-month surveillance period, deliveries of food, water, fuel and medicines into the Gaza Strip were below pre-war levels due to severe restrictions placed on the entry of aid by Israeli authorities.

When supplies were relatively available, the percentage of acutely malnourished children was around 6 per cent. After four months of particularly tight aid restrictions in late 2024, the rate of acute malnutrition jumped to 14 per cent by January 2025. A six-week ceasefire brought some relief, as more aid was allowed in, and rates dropped back to 6 per cent by March 2025.

However, following an 11-week total siege and subsequent continued restrictions, acute malnutrition surged again, reaching nearly 16 per cent by mid-August. This prevalence implies that there were about 54,600 acutely malnourished children across the Gaza Strip - nearly 12,800 of them severely malnourished - facing an estimated three- to five-fold higher risk of death than they would be if they were better nourished.

In the Gaza City Governorate alone, over 15 per cent of children were acutely malnourished by the end of July 2025, a fact that contributed to the IPC confirming famine in that part of the Gaza Strip and projecting its spread to other areas. The Lancet paper shows that the situation had become far worse by mid-August, affecting nearly 30 per cent of children in Gaza City.

Dr Masako Horino, a nutrition epidemiologist and the lead UNRWA investigator for the study, added: "This study revealed that youngest children in the Gaza Strip are tragically bearing an unimaginable burden of preventable malnutrition during this war."

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Notes to Editors

• A key method of assessing whether children are malnourished is the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement. It uses a colour-coded tape to check how much muscle and fat mass they have between the shoulder and the elbow. A low MUAC result can indicate wasting, allowing health workers to quickly identify patients who need therapeutic care.

• From January 2024 to mid-August 2025, UNRWA health staff conducted MUAC screenings at 16 UNRWA health centres and 78 medical points, mostly in UNRWA schools hosting displaced families, as well as in tent encampments, as part of the Agency's Community Management of Acute Malnutrition programme.

• The study analyzed 265,974 MUAC screenings conducted among 219,783 children, representing about 64 per cent of all children aged 6-59 months in the Gaza Strip.

• The study provides the most carefully analyzed and comprehensively presented evidence to date of how malnutrition among Gaza's youngest children has evolved during the war. By using routinely collected health data, the analysis portrays actual month-by-month trends that confirm an alarming rise in malnutrition that closely tracks restrictions and disruptions in humanitarian aid - strengthening the evidence that led to the IPC famine classification.
• The study was conducted by UNRWA with assistance in analysis, interpretation and reporting from the Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

• While this study focuses on young children, other population groups, including older children, the elderly, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, are likely to be experiencing high levels of malnutrition and further assessments are urgently needed.

• UNRWA staff in the Gaza Strip collected this data and implemented the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition programme under the most challenging conditions - including the killing of more than 370 colleagues from the Agency, 21 of them health workers, the destruction of UNRWA facilities, and repeated displacement.

UNRWAis the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA in 1949 with a mandate to provide humanitarian assistance and protection to registered Palestine refugees in the Agency's area of operations pending a just and lasting solution to their plight.

UNRWA operates in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, The Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Tens of thousands of Palestine refugees who lost their homes and livelihoods due to the 1948 conflict continue to be displaced and in need of support, nearly 75 years on.

UNRWA helps Palestine Refugees achieve their full potential in human development through quality services it provides in education, health care, relief and social services, protection, camp infrastructure and improvement, microfinance, and emergency assistance. UNRWA is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.

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