Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is witnessing a sharp and unprecedented rise in acute malnutrition among Palestinians in Gaza. At MSF’s clinics in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza and Gaza City in the north, our teams are seeing the highest number of malnutrition cases they’ve ever recorded in the Strip.
More than 700 pregnant and breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children with severe and moderate malnutrition are currently enrolled in outpatient therapeutic feeding centers in both clinics. Numbers in the Gaza City clinic almost quadrupled in under two months, from 293 cases in May up to 983 cases at the beginning of July. Of this cohort, 326 are children between six and 23 months old.
“This is the first time we have witnessed such a severe scale of malnutrition cases in Gaza,” said Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaiseb, MSF deputy medical coordinator in Gaza. “The starvation of people in Gaza is intentional. It could end tomorrow if the Israeli authorities allow food in at scale.”
