Above photo: actionagainsthunger.org.
Before Israel’s genocide, malnutrition in Gaza was nearly nonexistent.
Pregnant women, newborns, and infants are experiencing the most severe impacts.
On 7 May, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) disclosed data indicating that Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza has led to severe malnutrition among pregnant women, newborns, and infants, with a significant increase in deaths and premature births during times of intensified siege.
“The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured. Before the war, malnutrition in Gaza was almost non-existent,” MSF medical adviser Mercè Rocaspana revealed.
“For two and a half years, the systematic blockade to humanitarian aid and commercial goods, on top of insecurity, have severely restricted access to food and clean water. Healthcare facilities have been forced out of service and living conditions have profoundly deteriorated,” she added. “As a result, vulnerable groups of people are placed at heightened risk of malnutrition.”
The data came from four MSF-run or supported facilities across Gaza, covering late 2024 through early 2026.
It documented sharp increases in infant mortality, premature birth, and treatment abandonment, coinciding directly with periods of intensified Israeli aid blockades and siege warfare.
Of 201 mothers of newborns treated in neonatal intensive care units at Al-Nasser and Al-Helou hospitals between June 2025 and January 2026, more than half had experienced malnutrition at some point during pregnancy, and a quarter remained malnourished at the time of delivery.
At two other facilities in Khan Younis, 513 infants under six months were admitted to feeding programs between October 2024 and December 2025.
MSF traces a critical turning point to late May 2025, when Israel slashed the number of food distribution points from roughly 400 to just four, funneling what remained through its own Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
The deliberate strangling of aid sites forced able-bodied men in Gaza to make long, treacherous journeys and race for what little aid was being given out, only to be ambushed by direct Israeli and US mercenary fire at US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites.
Miscarriages spiked in the months that followed the GHF shutdown, with clinical teams identifying extreme stress due to intense aerial bombardment and the near-daily massacres in food distribution sites as contributing factors.
Since January 2024, MSF has admitted 4,950 children under 15 for acute malnutrition, alongside 3,482 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
The UN declared famine in Gaza in August 2025 due to the Israeli blockade of the strip, the first such declaration ever made in West Asia.
