Children in Gaza are dying of malnutrition: we need a ceasefire now

Last month, a baby in the US city of Philadelphia received treatment calibrated to his genetic code, offering relief for his life threatening disease.1 Yet at a time of such stunning scientific advances, elsewhere babies are dying for want of the most basic commodity: food.

Recently, I learnt of 4 month old baby Jenan and her mother Aya.2 Our team spoke to Aya at a clinic in Gaza where she was seeking treatment for Jenan’s diarrhoea and acute malnutrition, which she had been facing for three months. Later that day, Aya woke up to find her baby had died beside her. The lactose-free nutritional supplements she needed were not available. Ultimately, the combination of the malnutrition and diarrhoea was deadly.

As this, and countless other tragic stories, show, when food is scarce, children face a higher risk of dying from starvation than adults. For their young bodies to grow, they need more nutrients, yet they have smaller reserves to draw on.3

Without nutritious food, they become more vulnerable to the diseases around them, such as measles, pneumonia, and diarrhoea. When they are already weak from malnutrition, their ability to absorb nutrients is reduced. Their systems shut down, unable to use limited energies to respond to infections, creating a vicious cycle.

The impact is felt even before the visible signs appear, such as sunken eyes and papery thin skin—signs that are familiar from images of previous famines, including in my own country, Ethiopia.

Right now, in Gaza, there are children with those heart breaking signs: there are indeed children who are skeletally thin. There are also many without these visible signs but who are already malnourished. Desperate parents are bringing these children for treatment at the few hospitals that are still functioning, but even hospital shelves are bare.

Some 71 000 children aged under 5 could be acutely malnourished during the next 11 months, one in five of these could face severe acute malnutrition, according to the latest report from the body that assesses access to food, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) partnership, of which the World Health Organization is a member.4

The same report concluded that the entire population is at risk of famine. This is especially acute following an aid blockade that lasted from 2 March to 19 May 2025.

The IPC report raised public interest. But I fear some people may be waiting for famine to be declared before raising their voices. Yet already, people in Gaza are dying from acute malnutrition or, put more simply, from the lack of food.5 How can we help people understand that by the time famine is declared, people like baby Aya are already dying of hunger?

Right now, parents are forgoing meals to feed their children instead.

Right now, children are already too small, facing stunting, with lifelong impacts on their physical and mental development.

In fact, the conditions are in place for a catastrophe at the population level.

The epidemic profile is terrifying, with people sick, living under sheets of plastic, surrounded by sewage, with little access to clean water. Children have not received the vaccines that would protect them from many circulating diseases.

Meanwhile, the medical system, kept alive by the dedication of health workers and support from the UN and partners, is collapsing. Amid stock-outs of almost everything, some medical teams are reduced to scavenging for supplies from destroyed hospitals.

These conditions set the stage for the total collapse of health at the population level, bringing deeper suffering and waves of death.

The solution is agonisingly close. Food, medicines, water, and all the necessities of life are already on trucks, minutes away across the border. There is enough food to feed the entire population in those trucks, and much more to back that up. There are medical supplies for hospitals and specialised treatments for the most malnourished children. These supplies should be let in without restriction and through all crossings.6

Last month, Israel began to allow a limited amount of food and other supplies in, but much more is needed—and it must be delivered in an orderly manner, safely, and to all Gazans—to lift the population out of hunger and back to dignity. People should not have to risk their lives to get food.

The new food distribution system, managed by a new entity and as currently structured, is not fair and not effective. The UN and partners have shown time and again that the existing structures work. During the brief ceasefire, the UN delivered 600-700 trucks a day of supplies. We need multiple crossings to be opened and for lifesaving work to be supported. We need those who are helping to be protected, not hurt.

The escalating conflict in the Middle East adds further urgency to the situation and must not distract attention from the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It is hard to see what an individual can do in the face of this much suffering. One thing you can do is to ask your leaders to support people’s access to food and medicines. Let’s not be witness to another avoidable famine.

The hostages should be released unconditionally. Aid should flow freely. And above all, a ceasefire is needed so everyone can resume their lives. Peace is the best medicine.