Gaza Nutrition Survey Finds Fragile Gains and Deeper Risks for Children

The survey was carried out between 31 May and 15 June 2026, several months after humanitarian assistance expanded following the October 2025 ceasefire.

A new population-based nutrition survey from accessible areas of the Gaza Strip has found that acute malnutrition among young children is currently relatively low, yet the broader picture of child and maternal nutrition remains deeply concerning. Chronic malnutrition, poor-quality diets, frequent childhood illness and inadequate feeding practices continue to affect families, showing that access to calories alone does not capture the lasting nutritional pressures children have experienced.

The survey was carried out between 31 May and 15 June 2026, several months after humanitarian assistance expanded following the October 2025 ceasefire. Its findings capture a period when greater volumes of aid and commercial supplies were reaching accessible communities, creating conditions that helped reduce the number of children requiring treatment for acute malnutrition.

Stunting and poor diets reveal longer-term nutritional damage

Acute malnutrition among children under five was found to be low in the surveyed population, while 12.2 per cent of children were affected by stunting, a form of chronic malnutrition associated with impaired growth and the cumulative effects of inadequate nutrition, illness and difficult living conditions over time. Another 4 per cent of children under five were overweight, showing that several forms of malnutrition can exist within the same population.

Diet quality emerged as a major concern, particularly among younger children whose growth and development depend heavily on nutritious and diverse foods. Around 73 per cent of children aged 6–23 months had eaten unhealthy foods during the previous day, while only 22.4 per cent received a minimum acceptable diet. These figures suggest that families may have access to some food without necessarily being able to provide children with the range and nutritional quality needed for healthy development.

Some 37.1 per cent of children under five had experienced diarrhoea during the two weeks before the survey, a particularly worrying finding because repeated illness can interfere with nutrient absorption and contribute to poor growth. Malnutrition was also documented among girls and women aged 15–49, underlining the nutritional strain affecting mothers and other women of reproductive age.

Acute malnutrition fell sharply as supplies returned

The current findings contrast with the severe conditions experienced before the October 2025 ceasefire. During that period, major access restrictions and supply disruptions prevented blanket supplementary feeding programmes from operating widely across Gaza. Services for identifying and treating malnutrition continued in some places, yet the food, nutritional supplies and humanitarian access needed to prevent children from becoming malnourished were severely constrained.

Admissions of children for acute malnutrition treatment reached nearly 17,000 in August 2025, when the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification confirmed Famine in Gaza. Following the ceasefire and the expansion of humanitarian and commercial supplies, admissions fell to fewer than 3,000 children by March 2026.

UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder said the improvement demonstrates how quickly children's nutritional conditions can respond when food, aid and commercial goods are able to reach communities, while warning that those gains remain fragile and could be reversed if humanitarian access, funding or functioning markets deteriorate again.

Calories alone cannot repair the wider damage

Acute malnutrition reflects a child's more recent nutritional condition and can improve relatively quickly when adequate food and treatment become available. Stunting develops over a much longer period and can reflect accumulated exposure to poor nutrition, repeated illness, unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and limited access to health services.

This distinction means the relatively low level of acute malnutrition should not be viewed on its own as evidence that Gaza's wider nutrition crisis has ended. Children need enough food to meet their energy requirements, but they also need diverse and nutrient-rich diets, clean drinking water, sanitation, health care and protection from diseases that can undermine their ability to grow.

"Acute malnutrition can improve within weeks. The wider damage does not," Beigbeder said, stressing that survival calories cannot replace the broader conditions children need for healthy development.

Survey leaves part of Gaza's population unrepresented

Around 17 per cent of Gaza's population, estimated at approximately 358,000 people, was excluded from the sampling frame before clusters were selected because security and access restrictions prevented their inclusion.

This limitation is important when interpreting the results because nutritional conditions among people living in inaccessible areas may differ from those captured by the survey. The findings provide valuable evidence of improvement in acute malnutrition among the accessible population while also revealing continuing risks from stunting, poor diets, illness and maternal malnutrition.

UNICEF is calling for sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access, including the movement of fuel, continued financial support for nutrition, health, water and sanitation services, and functioning commercial markets. Maintaining those lifelines will be critical to protecting recent improvements while addressing the deeper nutritional and health problems that cannot be repaired in a matter of weeks.