Besieged Gaza: Claims of improvement in food conditions ring hollow as acute hunger and malnutrition continue to grip millions, with global health agencies warning that the situation remains firmly in emergency territory and could deteriorate rapidly if assistance falters.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis shows that 1.6 million people, 77 percent of the population assessed, are still facing acute food insecurity at Crisis level or worse. More than half a million people are classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), while 104,000 people were pushed into Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) during October and November 2025.
Although projections suggest a numerical decline in the most extreme category by April 2026, the overall picture remains grim, with virtually no meaningful reduction in the total number of food-insecure people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has cautioned that preventing famine on paper does not equate to protecting lives. The agency warns that widespread malnutrition is being driven by the collapse of health services, unsafe water, poor sanitation and relentless disease, creating conditions where children are starving even when some food is available.
According to the IPC assessment, nearly 101,000 children aged six to 59 months are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition over the next year, including more than 31,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition, a condition that sharply increases the risk of death without urgent treatment.
At the same time, around 37,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are projected to be acutely malnourished, compounding risks of low birth weight, maternal illness and infant mortality.
WHO notes that no child meets minimum dietary diversity standards, with most families surviving on nutrient-poor, carbohydrate-heavy and highly processed foods. Protein, fresh vegetables and fruit remain scarce or unaffordable. This nutritional collapse is occurring alongside widespread diarrhoea, respiratory infections and skin diseases, fuelled by overcrowded shelters, damaged sewage systems and limited access to clean water.
Despite increased humanitarian and commercial food deliveries following a reduction in hostilities, assistance covers barely nine days of food needs per month for most households, according to the IPC.
WHO has warned that such stop-gap aid cannot prevent malnutrition or excess deaths in the absence of functioning health facilities, clean water systems and sustained nutrition services.
The crisis is further deepened by mass displacement and exposure. More than 70 percent of people are living in makeshift shelters, many without adequate protection from cold, rain or flooding.
Livelihoods have been obliterated, unemployment stands at around 80 percent, and households have exhausted savings and coping mechanisms, leaving them entirely dependent on external aid.
WHO has stressed that any disruption in humanitarian access or food flows could push conditions rapidly towards famine, undoing fragile gains within weeks.
Health experts warn that the crisis illustrates a broader failure to address hunger as a public health emergency, underscoring how malnutrition, disease and poverty reinforce one another when systems collapse.