Children in Gaza Face Unprecedented Starvation Amid Blockade, UN Warns
UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday, as an 11-week blockade and restricted aid flows push young Palestinians to the brink of survival, Arab News reported.
In June alone, more than 5,800 girls and boys were diagnosed as acutely malnourished—nearly triple the figure recorded in February, just before Israel’s full blockade on humanitarian aid. According to UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, Gaza’s children are “enduring catastrophic living conditions, including severe food insecurity and malnutrition” after only a trickle of relief entered the territory since late May.
The new aid-distribution system run by Israel and the US, under the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, has sidelined UN channels and sharply reduced the volume of food, medicine and water reaching civilians. At distribution points, people—especially children—have been shot while queuing for lifesaving supplies. In Deir Al-Balah last week, an Israeli strike on a UNICEF line killed nine children among 15 Palestinians waiting for nutritional aid.
Beyond starvation, contaminated water supplies now account for 44 percent of all health consultations, and Gaza’s collapsed medical system forces five babies to share a single incubator while pregnant women deliver without care. Fletcher warned that intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare would constitute a war crime, echoing the International Court of Justice’s demand for Israel to allow “urgent basic services and humanitarian assistance.”
During the Security Council session, France and the UK sharply condemned Israel’s blockade and the deadly restrictions at aid sites, calling for an immediate ceasefire, restoration of UN delivery systems and an end to the humanitarian crisis. Israel’s ambassador, supported by the US, countered that Hamas’s continued detention of hostages seized on October 7 remains the root cause of Gaza’s plight.
As world leaders prepare for an international conference at UN headquarters in late July—co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia—diplomats hope to map a pathway to a two-state solution that can reverse Gaza’s spiral toward famine and restore hope to its youngest victims.
This comes amid continued Israeli strikes. At least 10 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured early Friday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting residential areas and displacement shelters in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 59,000 Palestinians so far, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.
