Nearly 9,300 Children in Gaza Diagnosed with Severe Acute Malnutrition

(MENAFN) Nearly 9,300 children younger than five years old throughout Gaza received diagnoses of severe acute malnutrition during October alone, UNICEF issued an urgent warning on Saturday.

"High levels of malnutrition continue to endanger the lives and wellbeing of children in the Gaza Strip, compounded by the onset of winter weather accelerating the spread of disease and increasing the risk of death among the most vulnerable children," the UN agency said in a statement on its website.

According to UNICEF, nutritional assessment screenings conducted by the organization and its humanitarian partners throughout the previous month "identified almost 9,300 children under 5 years of age with acute malnutrition in October."

The international agency reported that substantial volumes of winter relief materials remain trapped at Gaza's border crossings and issued demands for secure, swift and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian assistance into the besieged territory.

"As winter weather sets in, thousands of displaced families remain in makeshift shelters without warm clothes, blankets or protection from the elements, while heavy rains have washed waste and sewage through floodwaters and into populated areas," it added.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said that "despite progress, thousands of children under the age of five remain acutely malnourished in Gaza, while many more lack proper shelter, sanitation and protection against winter," the statement noted.

"Too many children in Gaza are still facing hunger, illness and exposure to cold temperatures, conditions that are putting their lives at risk. Every minute counts to protect these children," she said.

Russell additionally urged authorities to open all border crossings into the Gaza Strip, implementing streamlined and accelerated clearance protocols with explicit prioritization of humanitarian supply entry, permitting relief operations to utilize all viable distribution channels, including routes via Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank.

The urgent alert arrives despite the ceasefire agreement, which became operational in October, as Gaza confronts escalating humanitarian emergencies. The government media office announced Wednesday that a recent winter tempest inflicted damage upon approximately 22,000 tents providing shelter to displaced families and eliminated protection from harsh weather conditions for more than 288,000 households.

Authorities in Gaza calculate that the region requires roughly 300,000 tents and prefabricated housing structures to satisfy the most fundamental shelter necessities for Palestinians, following Israel's destruction of civilian infrastructure throughout two years of sustained military operations.

Since October 2023, the Israeli army has killed nearly 70,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, and injured more than 170,900 people in the over two-year war that has left much of the enclave in ruins.

The catastrophic nutritional crisis among young children represents only one dimension of the broader humanitarian disaster unfolding across the territory, where families struggle daily to secure basic necessities including food, clean water, medical care, and adequate shelter against increasingly severe winter conditions threatening vulnerable populations.

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