FAJAR SULAWESI | JAKARTA — More than 7,000 children under the age of five were admitted to a recovery program for acute malnutrition at a UNICEF-run clinic in Gaza in just two weeks last month, according to a report cited by The Guardian on Saturday (September 6, 2025).
UNICEF is still compiling the total number of participants in the recovery program for August. However, the number is expected to exceed 15,000 new patients, more than sevenfold, by February 2025.
A famine was declared in Gaza City, in the north of the devastated territory, last month. However, other cities further south are “rapidly catching up,” officials from the agency said.
“On the ground, it’s very clear that people are starving, that there’s a famine unfolding in Gaza City, and Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis [two cities south of Gaza] are not far behind,” said Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson who has spent the past few days in Gaza City.
Ingram said she spoke with a malnourished mother in Gaza. She was unable to breastfeed her eight-month-old baby, who was also malnourished there.
“She and her husband were sharing a cup of rice a day. The situation was dire,” Ingram added.
Gaza City, once a bustling center of commerce and culture, is now the target of a new Israeli offensive that threatens to displace a million or more of its residents. Israeli officials describe the city as a Hamas stronghold.
The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate the city to the south ahead of the offensive. However, the occupation has not provided a specific timetable for the offensive, which has indicated it will not be announced in advance.
The offensive threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of Palestinians already weakened by nearly two years of bombing, malnutrition, and now starvation. Many have already been displaced, many repeatedly. Some residents of Gaza City say they will never be displaced again.
In May, Israel eased its two-month-long blockade on supplies entering Gaza, but supplies remain inadequate.
UN agencies are struggling to overcome significant logistical challenges, ongoing Israeli restrictions, and bureaucratic hurdles to supply the small number of soup kitchens and bakeries.
Meanwhile, private commercial trucks are transporting limited quantities of rice, sugar, instant noodles, and other dried goods. Fresh vegetables are scarce and prices are reaching US$50 (£37) per kilogram.
“It’s the same story—a daily bowl from the soup kitchen, almost always lentils or rice, shared among families, with parents skipping it so the children can eat. There’s no nutrition. There are no other options—aid is scarce, and markets are too expensive,” Ingram said.
“It’s very clear that people are starving, that there’s a famine unfolding in Gaza City, and Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis are not far behind,” a UNICEF spokesperson said.
Residents described themselves as facing an “impossible choice”: stay in makeshift homes in Gaza City and hope to survive a potential Israeli attack, or flee to the densely populated coastal area, where there’s little space and virtually no services, water supply, or healthcare.
Aid workers in al-Mawasi, the main coastal zone designated by Israel for those fleeing Gaza City, say hundreds of thousands of displaced people have crowded into its sand dunes and fields. A tent-sized plot of land on any vacant plot costs the equivalent of $300 per month, and there’s little room for new arrivals.
“The water supply is inadequate, the tents and shelters are very fragile, there are no garbage or solid waste disposal sites, no shelters, and no space for other people… Even now, this place is completely uninhabitable,” said an aid worker in al-Mawasi.
Israeli officials have blamed the UN for failing to distribute aid and have repeatedly claimed Hamas stole much of it, although an internal US government report has found this to be untrue.
Last month, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a globally recognized organization that ranks the severity of food insecurity and malnutrition, found that three key thresholds for famine had been met in Gaza City. (sumber: Sehat Web)
