One in 10 children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished

15/7/2025 19:14

One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday.



"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.



Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of five in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.



"One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries," Touma said.



"Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out," Touma said.