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malnutrition
Medical Teams Still Struggling to Treat Gaza Malnutrition Crisis 'Entirely Manufactured' by Israel
"Every six months, we might get a food parcel once. It's barely enough," said one mother. "We are forced to eat whatever is in front of us."
May 07, 2026
A ceasefire was declared between Israel and Hamas seven months ago, but just as the deal has not stopped the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, it has failed to alleviate the acute malnutrition crisis that was created when Israel began blocking almost all humanitarian aid in October 2023.
The international aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), on Wednesday accused Israel of imposing a "manufactured malnutrition crisis" that is proving particularly devastating for pregnant and breastfeeding women, newborns, and infants.
At four clinics operated by MSF in Gaza between late 2024 and early 2026, medical teams found higher levels of miscarriage among mothers who experienced malnutrition.
The group also analyzed data on 201 mothers of newborns who required treatment in neonatal intensive care units at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al-Helou Hospital in Gaza City between June 2025 and this past January. More than half of the mothers had been affected by malnutrition at some point in their pregnancy.
Ninety percent of the babies had been born prematurely and 84% had low birth weight.
"Neonatal mortality was twice as high among infants born to mothers affected by malnutrition compared to those born to mothers without malnutrition," said MSF.
Samar Abu Mustafa, a displaced mother from Abasan al-Kabira, said she was diagnosed with malnutrition while pregnant with her 3-month-old baby.
"I don't know how I will provide diapers and milk, nor how I will provide food for my other daughters. There is no income and no support," said Abu Mustafa. "There is nothing apart from food parcels from the World Food Program and community kitchens. Every six months, we might get a food parcel once. It's barely enough. It is all rice and lentils. We are forced to eat whatever is in front of us."
"For a long time, we haven't eaten anything nutritious and the baby does not get enough milk from me, so I am forced to provide formula, but I don’t have money for it," she said. "I have just one remaining can of milk."
Mercè Rocaspana, MSF's medical referent for emergencies, emphasized that malnutrition in the exclave was "almost nonexistent" before Israel began bombarding Gaza and blocking humanitarian aid—an action Israeli and US officials persistently claimed Israel was not taking before the ceasefire was reached, even as the number of deaths from starvation climbed to nearly 500.
“The malnutrition crisis is entirely manufactured,” said Rocaspana. "For two and a half years, the systematic blockade of 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. As a result, vulnerable groups of people are at heightened risk of malnutrition.”
Before the war, there were no dedicated therapeutic medical feeding units in Gaza's hospitals, but MSF teams admitted more than 500 infants under six months of age to outpatient feeding programs between October 2024-December 2025—programs that the bombardment has made impossible for many families to complete.
"Of those admitted, 91% were at risk of poor growth and development. By December, 200 infants were no longer in the program—only 48% of them were cured, while 7% died, another 7% were referred to a program for older children, and a staggering 32% defaulted due in part to insecurity and displacement."
The 20-point ceasefire agreement stipulated that at least 600 aid trucks must enter Gaza daily and that border crossings must be reopened, but as Common Dreams reported in April, five leading aid groups gave "humanitarian aid access" a failing grade in a scorecard rating conditions in Gaza six months after the deal was reached.
Israel was still restricting deliveries, and food items sold in Gaza were anywhere from 3% to 233% more expensive than they were before the war started.
Al Jazeera's Hind Khoury reported Thursday that only 150 aid trucks are being allowed in daily.
Last week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that while there's been a 72% increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire was brokered, 11% of coordinated humanitarian missions are still being denied.
"Many lives have been saved in Gaza because of scaled up humanitarian effort since the ceasefire. But much more to do: We need to sustain access, protection of civilians, neutrality, and partnership," said Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs.
Gaza: Six months into the ceasefire, hunger continues to shape daily life and malnutrition levels remain high.@WFP is on the ground supporting those most in need, but aid alone is not enough for full recovery. pic.twitter.com/gABZySEjFI
— United Nations (@UN) May 6, 2026
Sahar Nafez Salem, who lives with her children in a tent in Khan Younis, told MSF that her family has been relying on a charity kitchen to eat.
"We eat lunch from it and save some for dinner," she said. "We try to manage getting lunch for our poor children every Friday, so we can bring them joy, but all week long, almost everything is from charity kitchens... The last time I received aid was during Ramadan... There is rice and lentils... Other things, like vegetables, are expensive. We can't get them all the time. So sometimes we go without vegetables for months."
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Land Degradation Threatens Billions of Lives Worldwide, Warns UN Food Agency
"Sustainable land management requires enabling environments that support long-term investment, innovation, and stewardship," said the head of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Nov 03, 2025
A report published Monday by a United Nations agency revealed that nearly 1 in 5 people on Earth live in regions affected by failing crop yields driven by human-induced land degradation, “a pervasive and silent crisis that is undermining agricultural productivity and threatening ecosystem health worldwide."
According to the latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) State of Food and Agriculture report, "Today, nearly 1.7 billion people live in areas where land degradation contributes to yield losses and food insecurity."
"These impacts are unevenly distributed: In high-income countries, degradation is often masked by intensive input use, while in low-income countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, yield gaps are driven by limited access to inputs, credit, and markets," the publication continues. "The convergence of degraded land, poverty, and malnutrition creates vulnerability hotspots that demand urgent, targeted and, comprehensive responses."
#LandDegradation threatens land's ability to sustain us. The good news: Reversing 10% of degraded cropland can produce food for an additional 154 million people.
▶️Learn how smarter policies & greener practices can turn agriculture into a force for land restoration.
#SOFA2025 pic.twitter.com/8U3yQk9lX4
— Food and Agriculture Organization (@FAO) November 3, 2025
In order to measure land degradation, the report's authors compared three key indicators of current conditions in soil organic carbon, soil erosion, and soil water against conditions that would exist without human alteration of the environment. That data was then run through a machine-learning model that considers environmental and socioeconomic factors driving change to estimate the land’s baseline state without human activity.
Land supports over 95% of humanity's food production and provides critical ecosystem services that sustain life on Earth. Land degradation—which typically results from a combination of factors including natural drivers like soil erosion and salizination and human activities such as deforestation, overgrazing, and unsustainable irrigation practices—threatens billions of human and other lives.
The report notes the importance of land to living beings:
Since the invention of agriculture 12,000 years ago, land has played a central role in sustaining civilizations. As the fundamental resource of agrifood systems, it interacts with natural systems in complex ways, influencing soil quality, water resources, and biodiversity, while securing global food supplies and supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Biophysically, it consists of a range of components including soil, water, flora, and fauna, and provides numerous ecosystem services including nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and water purification, all of which are subject to climate and weather conditions.
Socioeconomically, land supports many sectors such as agriculture, forestry, livestock, infrastructure development, mining, and tourism. Land is also deeply woven into the cultures of humanity, including those of Indigenous peoples, whose unique agrifood systems are a profound expression of ancestral lands and territories, waters, nonhuman relatives, the spiritual realm, and their collective identity and self-determination. Land, therefore, functions as the basis for human livelihoods and well-being.
"At its core, land is an essential resource for agricultural production, feeding billions of people worldwide and sustaining employment for millions of agrifood workers," the report adds. "Healthy soils, with their ability to retain water and nutrients, underpin the cultivation of crops, while pastures support livestock; together they supply diverse food products essential to diets and economies."
The report recommends steps including reversing 10% of all human-caused land degradation on existing cropland by implementing crop rotation and other sustainable management practices, which the authors say could produce enough food to feed an additional 154 million people annually.
"Reversing land degradation on existing croplands through sustainable land use and management could close yield gaps to support the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of producers," FAO Director-General Dongyu Qu wrote in the report’s foreword. "Additionally, restoring abandoned cropland could feed hundreds of millions more people."
"These findings represent real opportunities to improve food security, reduce pressure on natural ecosystems, and build more resilient agrifood systems," Qu continued. "To seize these opportunities, we must act decisively. Sustainable land management requires enabling environments that support long-term investment, innovation, and stewardship."
"Secure land tenure—for both individuals and communities—is essential," he added. "When land users have confidence in their rights, they are more likely to invest in soil conservation, crop diversity and productivity."
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To Fight Famine, 100+ Dems Call on Rubio to Surge Baby Formula, Other Aid Into Gaza
"Parents know the pain of a hungry baby's cry," said Rep. Ayanna Pressley. "Imagine, instead of fumbling for a bottle, a military blockade is preventing you from feeding your child."
Aug 26, 2025
With the number of Palestinian children who have been killed by Israel's blockade on humanitarian rising each day, more than 100 Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday called on the Trump administration to show "moral clarity" and demand that the Israeli government allow "a massive surge in humanitarian aid to enter Gaza," including shipments of baby formula.
U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) led 101 of their colleagues in writing to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, saying they were appealing to him not only in his "capacity as a government official but as a parent" as they warned that 20,000 children in Gaza have been treated for malnutrition since April, following Israel's decision to once again block all humanitarian aid from entering the enclave.
"Parents know the pain of a hungry baby's cry," said Pressley. "Imagine, instead of fumbling for a bottle, a military blockade is preventing you from feeding your child."
The letter came days after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) announced last week that portions of Gaza are now experiencing a "Phase 5" famine—after months of ignored warnings from human rights groups and United Nations agencies that the enclave's human-caused starvation crisis was rapidly worsening.
Pressley, Pettersen, and their colleagues said that as of their writing, at least 85 children were among those that have starved to death in Gaza; on Tuesday the Gaza Health MInistry reported that at least 303 Palestinians, including 117 children, have been killed by Israel's blockade.
"Infants in particular are especially vulnerable to death by starvation and are dying of malnutrition," said the lawmakers. "The lack of food and aid writ large means mothers do not have the basic nutrition required to sustain breastfeeding, rendering formula the only option for infant survival in many cases."
They emphasized that the only aid operations Israel is currently allowing—the distribution of aid boxes by the US-backed, privatized Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—have "delivered only a tiny fraction of the aid that could be delivered by the previous UN-coordinated distribution system," and has not included the allocation of baby formula.
Seeking aid at GHF hubs has also proven deadly for close to 1,000 Palestinians, as Israeli soldiers have reported that they've been ordered to shoot at civilians who approach the sites—even as Israel and its top military funder, the US government, persist in claiming the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) does not target civilians.
The Trump administration has also continued to parrot claims that Hamas is to blame for the famine in Gaza, even after the IDF admitted in July that there is no evidence that the group is stealing or diverting aid.
Since late May, wrote the lawmakers on Tuesday, an average of just 69 trucks per day have brought humanitarian aid from the UN into Gaza—far below the 500-600 trucks needed to meet humanitarian aid.
"As a result, Gaza is currently facing a dire shortage of baby formula, depriving infants of what is their only hope against starvation," said Pressley, Pettersen, and their colleagues.
In July, primary care doctor and public health expert Yipeng Ge described how his colleagues "have had baby formula confiscated by the Israeli military as they enter Gaza."
"These are not isolated incidents, but a systemic policy of genocide," said the doctor.
UN agencies have emphasized for months that trucks filled with aid, including pallets of formula, are languishing just across Gaza's borders.
"This crisis is not one of funding or resources, but of access and political will," wrote the lawmakers. "While we push for a long-lasting resolution and we are devastated that previous ceasefires were not upheld, we believe it is absolutely necessary to prioritize the safe delivery of the pallets of baby formula, specifically ready-to-feed formula, sitting at the border of Gaza to ensure that we do not lose another newborn or infant to starvation."
"All crossing points should immediately be reopened for the entry of humanitarian aid and allowed to operate simultaneously and
consistently," wrote the lawmakers, "and the Israeli government must take additional steps to vastly scale up the amount of aid allowed in through existing crossings and expand movement and access for international aid organizations throughout the Gaza Strip must also be taken, so that they can deliver this aid without diversion."
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