The Malnutrition Crisis in Gaza Will Outlive the War

Time​ Magazine

3 days ago

Babies are supposed to grow. But for the last eight of his 20 months of life, Enas Alwaheidi's toddler son, Taim, has remained at the same weight: 9 kilograms, or just short of 20 pounds.
'We don't have enough flour, so every day we make three pieces of bread,' Alwaheidi tells TIME from Sheikh Redwan near Gaza City. 'My husband eats one, and I eat half so that my son can eat one and a half pieces throughout the day.'
But their already meager food supply is dwindling. 'Taim goes to sleep hungry,' she says. 'He still doesn't have enough milk.'
With hunger-related deaths in Gaza on the rise, international pressure is mounting on Israel to ease restrictions and allow greater flows of aid. On Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), an assessment system used by global humanitarian agencies, reported that famine thresholds had been reached in nearly the entire enclave. The agency found that half a million people—one in five residents—are living in famine-like conditions.
A generation at risk
Experts caution, however, that even if aid arrives in time to avert mass death from starvation, an entire generation will be permanently affected as a result of being deprived of enough food.
According to data from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), one in five children under the age of five in Gaza City is now malnourished. In May alone, more than 5,000 children were diagnosed with malnutrition. Since January, an average of 112 children per day have been admitted into clinics across the Gaza Strip for treatment.
The long-term effects of malnutrition include stunted growth, impaired cognitive development, and weakened immune systems. These impacts are particularly devastating during the first three years of life—a critical developmental window in which the central nervous system and brain are still forming, according to Zero to Three, a U.S.-based non-profit organization focused on the healthy development of babies and toddlers. Severe malnutrition during this period can result in lifelong deficits, according to a 2021 study in Acta Biomedica, even if nutrition improves later. Stunting, which affects both physical and cognitive development, becomes irreversible after age two.
Medical experts warn that chronic malnutrition is permanently damaging the health of children across Gaza. The developing brain requires adequate nutrition to form proper neural connections, and prolonged malnutrition during infancy and early childhood can result in reduced IQ, learning disabilities, and behavioral problems that persist through life.
The immune systems of malnourished children remain compromised, making them more susceptible to infectious diseases. 'All of [the children] have a terrible diet,' says Alwaheidi. 'We're trying to prevent them from getting sick.'
Gaza's Ministry of Health recorded that 89 children have died from malnutrition effects since October 2023. Zainab Abu Haleeb, a 5-month-old, passed away on July 26 at Nasser Hospital weighing 4 pounds—less than what she weighed when she was born.
In the absence of independent monitoring on the ground, the ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies. Its figures cannot be independently verified by TIME.
Complications to pregnancy
Malnutrition in childhood can also have consequences in adulthood—especially for women. Experts note that those who experienced chronic malnutrition early in life face a higher risk of complications during pregnancy and childbirth. That risk is now acute, where up to 20% of Gaza's estimated 55,000 pregnant women are malnourished, according to the United Nations Population Fund, or UNFPA. Each missed meal increases the likelihood of miscarriage, stillbirth, and undernourished newborns.
While the human body tends to prioritize breast milk production even in times of moderate hunger, the extreme deprivation in Gaza has pushed many women beyond this physiological threshold, according to Andee Clark Vaughan, an emergency nurse with the Palestinian Australian New Zealand Medical Association (PANZMA) based in Gaza. Alwaheidi said she considers herself 'lucky' to be able to feed her child every day, but even so, 'it's not enough.'
Public health collapse
The crisis is compounded by the destruction of Gaza's infrastructure. As of June 2025, over 90% of homes in Gaza and 94% of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, according to the International Rescue Committee and the World Health Organization. In such conditions, even the delivery of food cannot prevent outbreaks of disease. Without clean water or functioning sewage systems, cholera, diarrhea, and severe dehydration pose grave risks.
'These [crises] work in tandem,' Scott Paul, Oxfam America's Director of Peace and Security, told TIME. The U.K.-based aid agency and its partners provide clean water and mental health support to civilians on the ground. But Paul said that such efforts are not enough to meet the scale of need. ' The first instinct is [to] send food when food is needed,' he says. 'But what's needed just as much are therapeutic feeding programs and full-scale medical interventions.'
International pressure mounts on Israel to allow in more aid
Israel halted most aid flows in March following the collapse of a cease-fire. Officials in the Israeli government deny that famine conditions exist in Gaza, calling such claims a 'false campaign promoted by Hamas.' But facing mounting global outrage, the Israeli military recently announced a daily 10-hour pause in operations in certain parts of the territory to permit aid delivery.
Citing concerns that Hamas was diverting humanitarian aid, Israel replaced the existing aid system with one of its own, operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a group backed by Israel and the United States. Four distribution points have been established under the new system. But since their creation, more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed at or near the sites, according to local officials. Aid organizations have called the sites both dangerous and insufficient.
The World Food Programme estimates that Gaza requires 62,000 tons of food each month to meet basic needs. While more than 116,000 metric tons of food aid are currently prepositioned at regional corridors, access remains limited.
'This is humanitarian theater when there are real humanitarian solutions available,' said Paul of Oxfam, urging Israel to reopen land crossings for large-scale aid convoys. 'It's been safe. It's been effective. It's been scaled. And there's no reason that can't happen tomorrow.'
Steve Cutts, interim chief executive of Medical Aid for Palestinians, said that the current aid airdrops are no substitute for organized land deliveries. 'Dropping aid from the sky cannot meet the colossal needs of 2.3 million people,' he told TIME, 'or replace the safe, coordinated aid delivery that only open land crossings can provide.'
For Enas Alwaheidi, every day is a struggle to ensure her son is fed and to try and ignore her own crippling hunger, which causes daily headaches, dizziness and exhaustion.
'[We] do not feel that we have any energy at all,' she says. 'We try to distract ourselves with anything to get the day over with.'