Famine in Gaza puts 132,000 children under five at risk of death

LONDON/GENEVA — At least 132,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are at risk of dying from acute malnutrition, Save the Children said Friday, as international monitors confirmed famine in Gaza Governorate — the first official declaration of famine in the Middle East.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported that more than half a million people in Gaza — roughly half of them children — are facing catastrophic hunger, the most severe level on the IPC’s five-point scale.

Save the Children said the number of children under five projected to die from acute malnutrition between now and June 2026 has doubled since May, underscoring the rapid deterioration. The crisis is expected to deepen as Israel’s military offensive in northern Gaza pushes hundreds of thousands of people south into Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, where famine is forecast to be declared by the end of September.

“This engineered famine is the ultimate and inevitable result of the Government of Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war,” Save the Children International CEO Inger Ashing said. “All of Gaza is being systematically starved by design, and children are paying the highest price.”

Ashing criticized the international community for failing to act, warning that even with the trickle of aid allowed in recent days, the flow remains far below what is required. “Our teams can save more lives and bring more children back from the precipice as soon as aid flows are restored,” she said, adding that the long-term effects on children’s health and development may never be fully reversed.

New figures highlight the devastating impact:

• In the first two weeks of August, 61 percent of pregnant women and new mothers screened at Save the Children clinics were malnourished — nearly seven times higher than the 9 percent recorded in early March before the siege intensified.

• Doctors at Save the Children health facilities are treating about 100 patients daily, twice the recommended caseload.

• The group has been unable to deliver its own aid to Gaza since March 2 and has 45 trucks loaded with medical supplies, shelter materials and hygiene kits waiting in warehouses.

Despite the obstacles, Save the Children has continued operations at its two primary health clinics in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah. Since the start of the war, the facilities have served more than 113,000 people, including over 42,000 children, providing screenings, treatment, supplements and therapeutic foods for children and mothers suffering malnutrition.

Ashing urged Israel to lift the siege and allow aid — including food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity — into Gaza at scale. She also called on world governments to “take every possible step” to stop the deliberate starvation of civilians.

“Famine means there are no more breaking points and no more alarm bells,” Ashing said. “The death and loss, the physical and mental harm, will last lifetimes and even generations. Palestinian children are their society’s future — and that future, and theirs, has been irrevocably undermined.”

This is an edited version of the report that was published by Save the Children on Aug. 22, 2025.