Malnutrition among children is reaching alarming levels in Gaza, where a full scale famine has now been declared.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), around 132,000 children under the age of five could face life threatening acute malnutrition by June 2026.
In its review of the situation across the Palestinian territories, the report highlighted that evacuation orders issued by Israeli forces during the military offensive were “often inaccessible” to people with hearing or visual impairments, making safe evacuation nearly impossible.
“Accounts also revealed that people with disabilities were sometimes forced to escape in unsafe and humiliating conditions, including crawling through sand or mud without proper mobility support,” the review noted.
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) further stressed that Israel’s blockade on humanitarian supplies entering Gaza has placed an especially heavy burden on people living with disabilities.
Since the war began nearly two years ago, at least 21,000 children in Gaza have been left disabled, the CRPD said. It added that about 40,500 children have sustained “new war related injuries,” with more than half of them now permanently disabled.
