Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has reported a sharp and unprecedented increase in acute malnutrition among people in Gaza, Palestine. According to the organization, clinics in Al-Mawasi, located in southern Gaza, and Gaza City in the north are recording the highest number of malnutrition cases ever documented by MSF teams in the region. The organization is calling for the urgent and sustained entry of food and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip.
More than 700 pregnant and breastfeeding women, and nearly 500 children with severe and moderate malnutrition, are currently enrolled in outpatient therapeutic feeding centres in both clinics. Patient enrolment in the MSF Gaza City clinic almost quadrupled in under two months, from 293 cases in May, up to 983 cases at the beginning of July. Of this July cohort, 326 are children between six and 23 months old.
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“This is the first time we have witnessed such a severe scale of malnutrition cases in Gaza,” says Mohammed Abu Mughaisib, MSF deputy medical coordinator in Gaza. “The starvation of people in Gaza is intentional, it can end tomorrow if the Israeli authorities allow food in at scale.”
The existence of malnutrition in Gaza is the result of deliberate, calculated choices by the Israeli authorities: restrict the entry of food to the bare minimum for survival, and dictate and militarise the means of its distribution, all while having destroyed the majority of local food production capacity. People are risking their lives in the immediate term to obtain inadequate food rations, as a wider system collapse is ongoing – sewage contamination is occurring because infrastructure is destroyed, restrictions on fuel are limiting the production of clean water, appalling living conditions in overcrowded camps are impacting people’s health and compromising people’s immunity.
“Due to widespread malnutrition among pregnant women, and poor water and sanitation services, many babies are being born prematurely,” says Dr Joanne Perry, MSF doctor. “Our neonatal intensive care unit [in Al-Helou hospital] is severely overcrowded, with four to five babies sharing a single incubator.”
“This is my third time in Gaza, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” says Dr Perry. “Mothers are asking me for food for their children, pregnant women who are six months along often weigh no more than 40 kilogrammes. The situation is beyond critical.”
Before October 2023, Gaza was heavily reliant on the entry of goods and supplies from outside, with an average of 500 trucks entering the Strip every day. Since 2 March, not even 500 trucks have entered in total. With border crossings for aid frequently closed or operating under heavy limitations, and with local food production nearly impossible due to ongoing hostilities and destruction, markets are either empty, or the available food is unaffordable for most.
Inevitably, prices of food have skyrocketed across Gaza, placing even basic staples out of reach for most people. For example, one kilogramme of sugar costs on average US$ 766, while a kilogramme of potatoes or flour costs nearly $30, according to the World Food Programme. Due to this, many families are surviving on just one portion of food a day – often only rice, lentils, or pasta – with no access to bread, fresh vegetables, or enough protein.
“I’m a mother, and I can’t blame them because I would do the same,” says Nour Nijim, MSF nursing team supervisor. “But I feel helpless as a healthcare provider. People are hungry and ask us for therapeutic food, but we don’t have enough and can only prescribe them to people diagnosed with malnutrition.”
