Children in Gaza are suffering from the effects of malnutrition amid the risk of a new famine
Children in the Gaza Strip continue to suffer the consequences of malnutrition following the 2025 famine, while the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns of a severe food crisis that could escalate into a new famine. According to OCHA, 67% of Gaza’s population faces food insecurity, and more than 200,000 people are living in conditions that typically precede a formal declaration of famine under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
As reported by Al Jazeera English, 35-year-old Sahar al-Bardini, who lives in the Al-Zawida camp in central Gaza, is raising three children on her own—six-year-old Omar, four-year-old Sama, and three-year-old Mahmoud. After her husband was killed in an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza three years ago, she became the family’s sole breadwinner.
The family is now able to eat more regularly than during the famine between August and December 2025, but they still have only one meal a day. According to the mother, Omar and Sama lost a significant amount of weight and became very weak during that crisis due to a lack of food and essential nutrients. It took the children about six months to gradually regain their weight and health.
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In the neighborhood where the family lives, community kitchens have become the main source of food for many families. They mainly serve rice and other staple foods, while meat is rarely available. Such meals help prevent starvation but do not provide children with enough protein and other nutrients necessary for growth.
Another Gaza resident, 25-year-old Shimaa, said that during the previous famine, she couldn’t find milk for her two-year-old daughter Selina and sometimes fed her lentils. According to her, the child is still weak and severely malnourished.
Nutritionist Hada Jibril noted that the end of the acute famine does not mean the consequences of malnutrition will disappear quickly. Children who have survived severe malnutrition need a regular, varied diet and ongoing monitoring to regain weight, ensure healthy growth and brain development, and strengthen their immune systems.
