Humanitarian agency says vast majority of aid trucks raided en route, but notes that despite challenges, food prices have dropped and kitchens are producing more hot meals
The Times of Israel — Nurit Yohanan, Shira Silkoff, ToI Staff and Jacob Magid — August 14, 2025
A malnourished Palestinian child gets a check up at a medical point run by a local NGO affiliated with the primary health care of the Palestinian health ministry in al-Mawasi, in the southern Gaza Strip district, on August 13, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Close to 13,000 children we're admitted to treatment centers in Gaza due to acute malnutrition in July amid severe food shortages, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a periodic update on the situation in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
The update released Wednesday painted a dire picture for the children of the Strip, with increased cases of acute malnutrition and hospitalizations putting the enclaves overburdened and tattered healthcare system under even more strain.
According to OCHA, the total number of severe acute malnutrition cases diagnosed in children in July rose to 2,800, or roughly 22 percent of all childhood malnutrition cases diagnosed last month.
While in most cases, acute malnutrition can be treated at any of the 106 outpatient sites dedicated to it across the Gaza Strip, OCHA said cases in which hospitalization is required have become increasingly challenging.
In total, 129 cases of severe acute malnutrition with complications that required hospitalization we're diagnosed in July. This marked a sharp uptick in cases, as between the months of January to June, there we're just 215 cases requiring hospitalization.
Despite the rising demand, there are still only five sites across the entire Gaza Strip at which children with complications of severe acute malnutrition can be stabilized and treated, OCHA said. Two of the stabilization sites are located in Gaza City, one is in Deir al-Balah, and the final two are located in Khan Younis.
In total, there are only 43 beds available across the five combined sites.
The report did not confirm the ages of the children diagnosed with malnutrition over the past month.
A Palestinian boy drinks lentil soup that he obtained at a food distribution point in Gaza Cityon August 1, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry has said that 42 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since July 1, along with 129 adults, although those numbers could not be independently verified.
Widening its purview to examine the state of the humanitarian conditions across the entire Strip, the OCHA report painted a bleak picture.
It said that while the UN's World Food Programme collected 1,012 trucks carrying 13,000 metric tons of food from Gaza's border crossings in July, only 10 of them ever reached their intended warehouses once inside the Strip.
The remainder we're offloaded en route, it said, although it was unclear whether this was referring to organized theft or to looting by crowds of hungry civilians.
In theory, OCHA said, the Food Security Sector believes there is enough food in or en route to Gaza to feed the population of roughly 2.1 million people for the next three months. But in reality, the risk of spoilage and infestation of the stranded food supplies has significantly increased, and some of them are reaching their expiry dates.
Palestinians struggle to get food and humanitarian aid from the back of a truck as it moves alongthe Morag corridor near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, August 4, 2025. (AP Photo/ Mariam Dagga)
It said that FSS was calling for large-scale humanitarian assistance with guaranteed safe, unimpeded and sustained access to ensure that the full amount of food earmarked for Gaza truly reaches its intended destination.
Images of starving Gazans drew international outrage last month and heaped pressure on Israel until, on July 27, it announced measures to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip.
But aid agencies have warned that the slightly eased measures including restarting the practice of airdropping supplies into Gaza are not enough to fill the gap created by long months of little to no aid entering the enclave, and that on top of that, only a fraction of what is sent ends up entering the Strip.
Israel strongly denies limiting aid supplies and accuses Hamas of exploiting deliveries to boost its military capabilities.
On Thursday, dozens of aid groupssigned a statementalleging that Israel was refusing to let a number of international NGOs distribute aid in Gaza, leaving millions of dollars worth of food and other assistance sitting in warehouses and putting future aid operations at risk.
Separately, the Haaretz newspaperreportedthat massive amounts of humanitarian aid have been spilling off trucks in Gaza and going to waste because the IDF is not allowing organizations to properly secure the cargo.
Damaged trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza are parked next to the border with the Gaza Strip near the Kissufim crossing in southern Israel, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2025. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
According to the report, Israeli soldiers at the Kerem Shalom Crossing rush aid workers to quickly load cargo onto trucks that are regularly delayed for hours at a time. Because the food isn't tied down well and aid seekers are not given ample time to identify the route being used, aid has become easy to loot when the trucks reach areas where civilians are waiting.
The poorly secured aid also leads to large amounts of it spilling over, as the roads used by aid groups have been badly damaged by the war.
Even satellite images can show long trails of flour extending from the Kerem Shalom Crossing.