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Sunday, July 20, 2025
‘I’m always hungry’: Locals, officials says malnutrition in Gaza is worse than ever
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Malnutrition in Gaza has reached new heights, local sources say, with the UN’s World Food Programme director describing the situation as “the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Ziad Musleh, a 45-year-old father displaced from Gaza’s north to the central city of Nuseirat, tells AFP: “We are dying, our children are dying and we can’t do anything to stop it.”
“Our children cry and scream for food. They go to sleep in pain, in hunger, with empty stomachs,” he says. “There is absolutely no food. And if by chance a small amount appears in the market, the prices are outrageous — no one can afford it.”
Umm Sameh Abu Zeina, whose cheekbones protruded from her thin face as she waited for food in Nuseirat, says she has lost 35 kilograms (77 pounds).
“We do not eat enough. I don’t eat, I leave the food I receive for my daughter,” she says, adding that she has a range of health conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
WFP director Carl Skau, who visited Gaza City in early July, describes the situation as “the worst I’ve ever seen.”
“A father I met had lost 25 kilograms (some 55 pounds) in the past two months. People are starving, while we have food just across the border,” he says in a statement.
“Our kitchens are empty; they are now serving hot water with a bit of pasta floating in it,” says Skau.
Amina Wafi, a 10-year-old girl from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, says she thinks of food constantly.
“I’m always hungry. I always tell my father, ‘I want food’, and he promises he’ll bring me something but there is none, and he simply can’t,” she tells AFP.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency says it has noted a rising number of infant deaths caused by “severe hunger and malnutrition,” reporting at least three such deaths in the past week.
“These heartbreaking cases were not caused by direct bombing, but by starvation, the lack of baby formula and the absence of basic healthcare,” civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal tells AFP.
Figures from Hamas agencies cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.