High levels of malnutrition continue to endanger the lives and wellbeing of children in the Gaza Strip, compounded by the onset of winter weather accelerating the spread of disease and increasing the risk of death among the most vulnerable children.
Nutrition screenings conducted by UNICEF and partners identified almost 9,300 children under 5 years of age with acute malnutrition in October, down from 11,746 children in September and 14,363 children in August. While this downward trend demonstrates progress in treating and preventing acute malnutrition among children in Gaza, October still marks one of the highest monthly admissions rates on record, and is nearly five times higher than in February 2025, during the previous ceasefire.
"Despite progress, thousands of children under the age of five remain acutely malnourished in Gaza, while many more lack proper shelter, sanitation and protection against winter," said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. "Too many children in Gaza are still facing hunger, illness and exposure to cold temperatures, conditions that are putting their lives at risk. Every minute counts to protect these children."
More food supplies have entered Gaza in recent weeks, driving down market prices and improving families' access to food. However, many essential items, particularly animal-source foods, remain unavailable or unaffordable for most. A UNICEF survey of families conducted in October found that 2 in 3 children under 5 years of age ate two or less food groups out of the recommended eight food groups the week prior, mostly grains, bread or flour.
As winter weather sets in, thousands of displaced families remain in makeshift shelters without warm clothes, blankets or protection from the elements, while heavy rains have washed waste and sewage through floodwaters and into populated areas.
With poor sanitation, overcrowding and limited access to safe water, disease spreads rapidly and disproportionately affects young children. The combination of malnutrition and disease is especially lethal: each condition accelerates and worsens the other. Further, cold temperatures dramatically increase the body's energy needs, putting malnourished children, who lack fat and muscle reserves, at severe risk of hypothermia.
UNICEF has scaled up its nutrition response in the Gaza Strip, especially in Gaza City where famine was confirmed in August. Here, the number of acute malnutrition treatment points has increased from seven to 26 since the ceasefire, allowing improved access to life-saving services to children suffering from acute malnutrition. Moreover, since the ceasefire, UNICEF brought more than 5,000 family tents, 247,000 tarpaulins, 692,000 blankets, 50,500 mattresses, and 206,000 sets of winter clothes into Gaza.
We are quickly distributing these items, reaching families with urgent winter-related supplies and services in the past week to prevent displacement sites from flooding and to protect children's health. This has included providing cash assistance to vulnerable families, pumping floodwater, reinforcing storm basins, clearing debris from streams and pipelines, and installing sandbags to prevent sites housing the internally displaced from flooding. Our teams reached people in high need in previously unserved areas, such as Jabalia in North Gaza, where severe destruction and the lack of basic services mean families are especially vulnerable.
However, the distributed supplies are not being replaced quickly enough with the significant volume of winter supplies awaiting entry at the borders. We call for the safe, rapid and unimpeded movement of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, in line with international humanitarian law.
We also urge all parties to:
- Simultaneously open all crossings into the Gaza Strip, with simplified and expedited clearance procedures and the clear prioritisation of the entry of humanitarian supplies.
- Allow humanitarian relief to move through all feasible supply routes including via Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and the West Bank.
- Permit the urgent entry, at scale, of a full range of life-saving and life-sustaining supplies, including items previously denied or restricted. To meet water and sanitation needs, UNICEF calls for water treatment chemicals, spare parts and supplies for the repair, maintenance and operation of water and wastewater systems to enter Gaza at the required scale.
