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Study shows how UNRWA delivered emergency nutrition support to children in Gaza

UNRWA

15 May 2025

As the humanitarian and hunger crisis deepens in the Gaza Strip, a new article outlines how UNRWA's emergency nutrition response in 2024 supported tens of thousands of Palestine Refugee children at risk of malnutrition amid the war.

The article in the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, entitled "Integrating Emergency Nutrition into UNRWA's Humanitarian Response in Gaza", explains how UNRWA, with the support of UNICEF and other partners, launched a wide-scale emergency nutrition programme between January and September 2024, following the start of the war in October 2023. These included:

• Distribution of food parcels to 1.15 million people.
• Screening of over 87,500 children under five for malnutrition using Middle Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) measurements.
• Referral of 6,398 children diagnosed with malnutrition for treatment.
• Training 110 UNRWA health workers to provide nutrition services under crisis conditions.

"This study shows what we and our partners were able to do when it was still possible to bring food and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip, even in very restricted quantities. Tragically, the total ban on aid imposed by the Israeli authorities since March this year means that we have run out of what we need to prevent and treat malnutrition," said Dr. Akihiro Seita, UNRWA Director of Health.

"The scale of needs in Gaza in 2024 was already enormous. Now it is overwhelming. The health system is completely overstretched. Over 90 per cent of Gaza's population is experiencing acute food insecurity. Severe restrictions on access to food, essential supplies, and medicines have significantly increased the risk of malnutrition, particularly among children under five."

The war has all but destroyed health services and disrupted access to food and clean water. This 2024 UNRWA initiative shows the vital role of adaptable nutrition interventions to reach the most vulnerable, in extremely challenging circumstances.

"Malnutrition is silent, but deadly. Its impact can be devastating without timely detection and treatment, especially for children, and can have long-term consequences," Dr. Seita added. "This is why UNRWA's nutrition response has not just been important but also lifesaving. The siege must be lifted so that this work can be resumed fully and be scaled up in the face of spiraling needs."

The findings highlight the urgent need for sustained, flexible, and well-coordinated nutrition programmes for children in conflict settings. In Gaza, rates of child malnutrition are increasing by the day, and pose a critical threat to the survival, growth, and long-term development of children.

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