The UN says child malnutrition in Gaza has reached alarming levels in 2025, warning that winter conditions and aid restrictions are rapidly eroding fragile humanitarian gains.
The United Nations warned on Monday that child malnutrition in the Gaza Strip has reached critical levels, with nearly 95,000 cases identified since the start of 2025, as severe winter weather threatens to reverse already fragile humanitarian progress.
Speaking at a press briefing, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire, with harsh weather increasingly undermining relief efforts on the ground.
Dujarric noted that agencies coordinating the nutrition response continue to identify large numbers of children requiring urgent intervention. He said that humanitarian partners screened more than 76,000 children last month alone, detecting approximately 4,900 cases of acute malnutrition, including over 820 cases classified as severe.
“These latest figures bring the total number of acute malnutrition cases identified in 2025 to nearly 95,000,” he said.
While UN partners have distributed emergency shelter supplies—including tents, tarpaulins, and blankets—to around 28,000 families, Dujarric warned that approximately 1.1 million people remain in urgent need of assistance, as ongoing rainstorms continue to damage or destroy makeshift shelters.
He stressed that tents are only a temporary solution and that significantly more resources are required to move beyond emergency response. These include construction materials, debris-clearing equipment, and sustained funding to enable early recovery and rebuilding efforts.
Addressing the impact of winter conditions on children, Dujarric said that since the ceasefire, humanitarian partners have distributed more than 310,000 winter clothing kits for children, along with over 112,000 pairs of shoes. In addition, 150 specialized tents have been installed across Gaza to serve as child-friendly and safe spaces.
On education, Dujarric said UN partners have opened 18 new temporary learning spaces, bringing the total to 440 sites currently serving approximately 268,000 children. However, he noted that Israeli authorities continue to block the entry of educational supplies, arguing that education does not constitute a critical activity during the first phase of the ceasefire.
“We strongly disagree,” Dujarric said, emphasizing that education is essential and calling for rapid, sustained, and unimpeded access to allow humanitarian agencies to expand assistance and prevent further deterioration of living conditions in Gaza.
Responding to questions about continued destruction in the enclave, Dujarric said the UN wants to see an immediate halt to the demolition of what remains of Gaza and urged all parties to move toward the second phase of the ceasefire to enable reconstruction.
A ceasefire agreement came into effect on October 10 under a 20-point plan announced by Donald Trump, ending two years of Israeli military operations that have killed more than 71,000 Palestinians—most of them women and children—and wounded over 171,000 people since October 2023.
(palestinechronicle, Anatolia)
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