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	Gaza: 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition by Ramesh Rajasingham, Ted Chaiban UNICEF Deputy Executive Director   10 August 2025   Briefing to the UN Security Council on Gaza by Ramesh Rajasingham, OCHA Director of Coordination, on behalf of Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:   "The suffering endured in Gaza over the past 22 months has been nothing short of soul-searing. Our shared humanity demands that this unacceptable catastrophe is brought to an immediate end.   I will address three matters today: First, I am extremely concerned over the prolonged conflict and reports of atrocities and further human toll that is likely to unfold following the Government of Israel’s decision to expand military operations in Gaza.   This marks a grave escalation in a conflict that has already inflicted unimaginable suffering.   Now, for over 670 days, Palestinians in Gaza have endured daily killings and injuries. More than 61,000 people have been killed, including over at least 18,000 children, and 151,000 have been injured, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.   Meanwhile, 50 hostages are believed to remain in Gaza – with those still alive held in inhumane and appalling conditions.   Thousands of Palestinians, including women and children, remain in Israeli detention – many held without charge or trial, or the required safeguards.   A grim milestone has also been crossed in our sector, the humanitarian community: Over 500 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since hostilities escalated, including at least 167 women. Smear campaigns against aid operations continue unabated. And as we approach World Humanitarian Day, we must insist on the protection of all aid workers.   Second, humanitarian conditions are beyond horrific. We have frankly run out of words to describe it. Whatever lifelines remain are collapsing under the weight of sustained hostilities, forced displacement and insufficient levels of life-saving aid.   Hunger-related deaths are rising, especially among children with severe malnutrition. Since the escalation of hostilities in October 2023, the health authorities in Gaza have documented the deaths of 98 children from severe acute malnutrition – 37 alone since 1 July – just over a month ago. So, this is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple.   Each day brings harrowing images of men, women, and children killed and injured while desperately seeking assistance.   Gaza lies in ruins. Almost everyone in Gaza has been forcibly displaced at some point over the past two years. Palestinians in Gaza have been forced into an area that amounts to less than 14 per cent of the territory, in areas that are not safe and are lacking basic services or shelter. Further expansion of military operations will make these conditions even worse.   Families in Gaza are living in insecure and overcrowded conditions, many without shelter. Eleven per cent of some 6,500 households surveyed recently by humanitarian partners were reported to be living out in the open. No organization – UN or otherwise – has been able to bring shelter supplies into Gaza since 2 March. The lack of adequate shelter is particularly worrisome, as we know that winter will soon be upon us.   Given the scale of repeated displacement and current living conditions, preventing the entry of emergency shelter supplies defies the obligation to allow humanitarian relief for the population in need.   The humanitarian system has effectively collapsed. Hospitals are not protected, doctors have been killed or detained, and facilities are working without sufficient medical supplies. Water and sanitation infrastructure are failing, and social cohesion is unraveling. How are the people in Gaza expected to survive in these conditions?   My third point: The recent military ‘tactical pauses’ have enabled some minor positive changes in humanitarian operations. Limited amounts of fuel have been allowed in, and on 5 August, Israeli authorities approved a mechanism for the gradual resumption of controlled commercial goods into Gaza. This has resulted in different types of food returning to markets and a slight decrease in some prices.   Our teams on the ground caution us that despite these developments, meaningful change for the population remains elusive, as humanitarian conditions remain largely unchanged.   Security conditions have remained volatile. Fighting has continued. Crossing arrangements have remained inadequate. Humanitarian missions, though less frequently denied outright, can still take over 18 hours, with teams stranded on dangerous roads.   Extreme desperation is driving people to take the humanitarian aid in transit – but this need not be the case. We've seen that when assistance is rapidly and significantly scaled up, incidents of looting and insecurity decline, and trust begins to be rebuilt.   The United Nations has the plan and systems in place to respond. We've said this before, and we will say it again and again: let us work. To assist all those in need, at scale, we must have predictable access – and the movement of life-saving goods must be more effectively facilitated.   It is equally critical that all humanitarian partners on the ground, including international humanitarian organizations, are allowed to deliver life-saving services. Registration processes for non-governmental organizations that the Government of Israel introduced earlier this year are concerning and risk further undermining operational capacity and continuity.   We remain deeply concerned about the ripple effects of the expansion of Gaza military operations on the West Bank, where military operations, settler violence and home demolitions persist at unprecedented and alarming rates. A year ago, the International Court of Justice determined that Israel must bring its unlawful presence, policies and practices to an end as rapidly as possible.   Developments in the West Bank worsen an existing humanitarian situation that sadly remains less visible – not because it is less severe, but because global attention has been drawn elsewhere.   Mr. President, Council members, and, indeed, the international community listening, States – all those with any influence – must look within our bruised collective conscience and summon the courage to do what is necessary to end this inhumanity and pain. It is also what international law demands.   Civilians must be protected and their essential needs must be met. Hostages must be released unconditionally. Arbitrarily detained Palestinians must be freed.   Israel must agree to and facilitate humanitarian relief operations, both into and within the Gaza Strip, to reach the population in need. The International Court of Justice’s provisional measures in the case on the application of the Genocide Convention in Gaza remain in place, including the demand that Israel take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.   Life and dignity should be respected for all. International humanitarian law serves as a compass for conduct in war, and is designed to ensure a minimum of humanity. The parties and all States must honour their commitment to this. The suffering must stop.   http://www.unocha.org/news/ocha-urges-security-council-summon-courage-end-inhumanity-gaza   1 August 2025   UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban's remarks following his recent travel to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank:   "I just returned from a five-day mission to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and I speak to you with deep urgency and profound concern today.   "This was my fourth visit to Gaza since the war began after the horrors of October 7th, itself building on decades of an unresolved conflict. You see the images on the news, and you know what has happened, but it is still shocking when you are there.   "The marks of deep suffering and hunger were visible on the faces of families and children. Over 18,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war. That’s an average of 28 children a day, the size of a classroom, gone. Children have lost loved ones, they are hungry and scared, and they are traumatised.   "Gaza now faces a grave risk of famine. This is something that has been building up, but we now have two indicators that have exceeded the famine threshold. One in three people in Gaza are going days without food, and the malnutrition indicator has exceeded the famine threshold, with global acute malnutrition now at over 16.5 per cent [in Gaza City]. Today, more than 320,000 young children are at risk of acute malnutrition.   "On Monday, when I was in Gaza, I met the families of the 10 children killed and 19 injured by an Israeli airstrike while they were queuing for food with their mothers and fathers at a nutrition clinic in Deir el-Balah that UNICEF supports.. This simply should not be happening. The children I met are not victims of a natural disaster. They are being starved, bombed, and displaced.   "At a stabilisation centre in Gaza City, I met acutely malnourished infants whose bodies were little more than skin and bone. Their mothers sat nearby, desperate and exhausted. One mother told me she no longer produces breastmilk - she herself is too hungry.   UNICEF is trying to do everything we can to address the situation but the needs are enormous after 22 months of war, two months of a blockade, aid is not at the required scale to meet the overwhelming needs.   We have over 1,500 trucks of life-saving supplies ready across corridors in Egypt, Jordan, Ashdod, and Turkey.   "We have called for more humanitarian aid and commercial traffic to come in - moving closer towards 500 trucks a day - to stabilize the situation and reduce the desperation of the population.   "In order to address that, we need to flood the strip with supplies using all channels and all gates. This is not going to be achieved through humanitarian aid alone, and so we also pushed for commercial goods to get into the strip - eggs, milk and other essential supplies that complement what the humanitarian community is bringing in.   "We pressed for 'dual-use' items and more fuel to be allowed in so that the water system can be repaired. It is very hot in Gaza - 40 degrees -and water is in short supply, with the risk of disease outbreak looming everywhere.   "We pressed for a review of their military rules of engagement to protect civilians and children. Children should not be getting killed waiting in line at a nutrition centre or collecting water, and people should not be so desperate as to have to rush a convoy.   "We will continue to advocate so that the humanitarian pauses do not lead to further displacement, pressing the population into an ever smaller area.   "I should also say that I visited the West Bank. There, too, children are under threat. So far this year, 39 Palestinian children have been killed. I visited a Bedouin community east of Ramallah, which was forcibly displaced due to violence.   "We also met with Israeli children impacted by the war. Children who have endured fear, loss, and displacement. Children don't start wars, but they are the ones impacted by the wars.   "But today, I want to keep our focus on Gaza—because it is in Gaza where the suffering is most acute, and where children are dying at an unprecedented rate.   "We are at a crossroads. The choices made now will determine whether tens of thousands of children live or die. We know what must be done and what can be done. The UN and NGOs that form the humanitarian community can address this, along with commercial traffic, if the measures are in place to allow access and eventually have enough goods in the Strip that some of the issues that are there with law and order abate.   "Funding is needed. UNICEF’s appeal for Gaza is critically underfunded - only 30 per cent of health and nutrition needs are covered.   "We hope that the parties can agree on a cease-fire and the return of all remaining hostages by Hamas and other armed groups. This has gone on for far too long. 22 months. What is happening on the ground is inhumane. What children need - children from all communities - is a sustained ceasefire and a political way forward.   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/devastating-rate-child-malnutrition-gaza-strip-august-surpasses-july-record http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-attributable-unicef-regional-director-middle-east-and-north-africa-edouard http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-deputy-executive-director-ted-chaibans-remarks-following-his-recent-travel http://www.wfp.org/news/un-agencies-warn-key-food-and-nutrition-indicators-exceed-famine-thresholds-gaza http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-133/en/ http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/july/as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away http://www.warchild.net/news/in-gaza-starvation-doesnt-just-kill/   * IPC Child Acute Malnutrition Classification latest: http://tinyurl.com/4n25jjbz Visit the related web page
	We must save as many lives as we can by Tom Fletcher United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator   June 2025   By the end of May 2025, nearly 300 million people around the world were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and protection. In the first months of the year, conflicts and violence intensified in multiple countries—deepening needs and driving many people to the brink of death—while natural disasters wreaked havoc on the lives of millions of people.   Multiple crises were characterized by systematic violations of international humanitarian law, including mass atrocities, with catastrophic consequences for civilians.   Forced displacement—primarily driven by conflict—reached its highest ever levels. The number of people forced to flee persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations and events seriously disturbing public order rose in 2024, reaching a record 123.2 million people, or one in 67 people globally.   This included 83.4 million people who remained internally displaced within their own country as a consequence of conflicts and natural disasters, a 12 per cent increase compared to 2023.   In 2025, refugees continued to flee crises—particularly Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Myanmar and Sudan—and internal displacement rose rapidly.   In the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) , hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were repeatedly forcibly displaced and confined into ever-shrinking spaces. Haiti is seeing record levels of displacement due to violence, with nearly 1.3 million people now internally displaced, a 24 per cent increase since December 2024.   In the DRC, the M23 offensive in the east of the country, beginning in January 2025, displaced over a million people. In Burkina Faso, over 60,000 people were internally displaced in April alone and in Colombia, over 50,000 people were displaced in just two weeks due to the Catatumbo crisis.   With every displacement, urgent shelter needs arise. Shelter is a foundation for survival—without it, people remain exposed to violence, disease, and exploitation. Despite 40 per cent of IDPs globally still residing in displacement sites, the support provided to these locations is minimal.   The global food security crisis escalated dramatically, with 295.3 million people facing high acute food insecurity. Conflict and/or insecurity was responsible for Catastrophic food insecurity (Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) 5) in Haiti, Mali, OPT, South Sudan and Sudan, as well as famine in 10 locations in Sudan and famine-risk across all of Gaza, OPT.   Conflict also caused food insecurity to significantly deteriorate in Myanmar, Nigeria and Sudan, and drove malnutrition crises in Mali, OPT (Gaza), Sudan and Yemen.   Sexual violence was rampant, particularly against women and girls. In the DRC, it was estimated that a child is raped every half hour; in Haiti, there was a tenfold increase in sexual violence against children between 2023 and 2024; in Sudan, the scale and brutality of sexual violence escalated, and around 12.1 million people—nearly one in four, most of them women and girls—are now at risk of gender-based violence.   The horrifying toll of war on children continued to mount, with 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in Gaza, OPT between October 2023 and May 2025, and April 2025 marking the deadliest month for children in Ukraine in nearly three years. In Colombia, more than 46,000 children and adolescents in the Catatumbo region are facing alarming risks, including fear of forced recruitment into non-State armed groups due to escalating conflict in 2025.   Attacks against health care disrupted vital and life-saving care for millions of people throughout the first months of 2025, with over 500 attacks recorded—over 300 of which involved the use of heavy weapons—across 13 countries and territories.   The use of explosive weapons in urban areas caused devastating harm for civilians and impacted services essential for their survival, including in Myanmar, OPT, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen. It is estimated that some 50 million people suffer the horrific consequences of urban warfare worldwide.   Climate and geological crises: Two major natural disasters occurred in the first half of 2025. On 28 March 2025, two earthquakes struck central Myanmar, killing 3,800 people, injuring 51,000, destroying thousands of homes and disrupting communications, water access and electricity supply. The disaster exacerbated an already dire humanitarian situation in the country where, prior to the earthquake, nearly 20 million people were already in need of humanitarian assistance.   Meanwhile, in Mozambique, Tropical Cyclone Dikeldi made landfall on 13 January 2025, just a month after Tropical Cyclone Chido on 15 December 2024. The two cyclones impacted 700,000 people and destroyed approximately 150,000 homes, as well as hundreds of schools and health facilities.   The risk of major emergencies continues to rise due to the global climate crisis, with 2024 now confirmed as the warmest year on record, while 2015 to 2024 are all in the ‘Top Ten’. And the future is bleak: there is an 80 per cent chance that at least one year between 2025 and 2029 will be hotter than 2024.   Underfunding: millions of people’s lives are hanging in the balance as services, programmes and organizations shut down   At the end of 2024, humanitarian action was already underfunded and under attack. Today, the situation is unimaginably worse: humanitarians are having to dramatically cut assistance and protection for people in crisis as funding plummets, while themselves facing increasing attacks.   In the first five months of 2025, multiple major donors reduced funding, triggering a seismic contraction in global humanitarian action.   The United States of America—which funded 45 per cent of the global humanitarian appeal in 2024—announced a suspension and subsequent termination of many humanitarian contracts, with sudden and widespread consequences around the globe.   This came on top of reductions announced or instituted by other major donors, including Germany and the United Kingdom, and on the back of a reduction in humanitarian aid from 2023 to 2024.   At least 79 million people in crisis will no longer be targeted for assistance as a result and this is likely a significant underestimate.   Cuts in food rations and emergency assistance are jeopardizing the lives and wellbeing of people facing acute food insecurity.   The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that it may reach more than 16 million people less (21 per cent) with emergency food assistance in 2025 compared to the 80 million people assisted in 2024. Already, prior to 2025, financing for food, cash and emergency agriculture was well below what was required, from Haiti to Mali and South Sudan.   In Bangladesh, one million Rohingya refugees who rely on food assistance will see their monthly food rations halved without additional funding. In Gaza, Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), one in every three (60 out of 180) community kitchens had to close in just days. In Sudan, additional funding is urgently needed to procure and distribute seeds, without which, many farmers may miss this critical planting window. In Haiti, which has just entered the Atlantic Hurricane Season and where food insecurity is rampant, WFP, for the first time ever, has no prepositioned food stocks, nor the cash liquidity to mount a swift humanitarian response in the case of a hurricane.   Malnourished children face heightened risk of severe malnutrition and death. Disruptions to nutrition support and services due to global funding cuts are expected to affect 14 million children, including more than 2.4 million who are already suffering severe acute malnutrition and at imminent risk of death.   In Afghanistan, 298 nutrition sites closed, depriving 80,000 acutely malnourished children, pregnant women, and new mothers of treatment posing a serious risk of increased mortality.   Maternal and infant mortality may rise, as sexual and reproductive healthcare services are cut in countries where risks are already the highest. Funding cuts have led to facility closures, loss of health workers and disruptions to supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria—all leading causes of maternal deaths. Severe funding cuts are reducing support for midwives in crisis settings, jeopardizing the health and lives of pregnant women and newborns in some of the most fragile places on earth.   Children are losing access to their future, as access to education diminishes. More than 1.8 million children will miss out on learning due to aid cuts impacting just one NGO’s education programmes in over 20 countries.   Lack of shelter is leaving millions of people exposed to the elements and violence. In some of the world’s biggest crises—including Sudan and DRC—distribution of emergency shelters is at risk of being cut. In Chad, Colombia and Uganda, families face protracted displacement with no shelter assistance on the horizon.   Around the world, budget cuts are forcing humanitarian partners to reduce operations, presence and services. At least 12,000 humanitarian staff contracts have been cut and at least 22 organizations have had to completely close their offices in the relevant countries. National NGOs have reported the highest proportion of terminations.   Separately, almost half (47 per cent) of women-led organizations surveyed are expecting to shut down within six months, if current funding levels persist, and almost three-quarters (72 per cent) report having been forced to lay off staff.   Funding cuts have also affected humanitarian programmes for persons with disabilities, with 81 per cent reporting an impact on the delivery of assistance to address basic needs and 95 per cent reporting an impact on work to address barriers faced by persons with disabilities to access humanitarian assistance.   The risk of preventable disease and mortality has risen as health and water, sanitation and hygiene services (WASH) are curtailed.   In Syria, hospitals serving over 200,000 people in Deir ez-Zor are at risk of closing in May 2025 and over 170 health facilities in the north-west of the country risk running out of funds. In Somalia, over a quarter of one NGO’s health and nutrition facilities will stop services in June 2025, affecting at least 55,000 children.   In the DRC, 100,000 children are projected to miss out on measles vaccination in 2026 alone. In Afghanistan, approximately 420 health facilities have closed, denying three million people access to primary health care. In Sudan, through the South Sudan Regional Refugee Response Plan, nearly 190,000 refugees and host households in White Nile, Kordofan and parts of Darfur risk losing access to WASH services, heightening the risk of disease outbreaks, malnutrition and protection violations, particularly for women and children.   Funding cuts for women-led organizations have hit gender-based violence prevention and protection efforts hardest. In the DRC, underfunding—combined with an upsurge in violence—means that 250,000 children will miss out on GBV prevention. In Yemen, funding suspensions have already forced 22 safe spaces to close, denying services and support to women and girls.   Services for refugees are being jeopardized. In Rwanda, under the DRC regional refugee plan, cash assistance for food decreased by 50 per cent. In Uganda, vulnerable refugees (82 per cent of the settlement refugee population) have had their food rations reduced to approximately a quarter of the full amount. In Lebanon, tens of thousands of vulnerable families risk being left without cash assistance to meet their basic needs. In Hungary, under the Ukraine Refugee Response Plan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will not enroll any new refugees with severe disabilities into the cash support programme.   As of 10 June 2025, only 12 per cent of funding required under the 2025 Global Humanitarian Overview has been received. Without urgent additional support and financial backing, humanitarian partners will be unable to reach even people with the most life-threatening needs.   And yet, this devastating underfunding of humanitarian action comes amid an exponential rise in military expenditure. In 2024, military expenditure reached over $2.7 trillion in 2024; more than 100 times the amount galvanized for humanitarian appeals globally ($24.91 billion). This was the steepest year-on-year rise in military expenditure since at least the end of the Cold War, with European military expenditure accounting for the main increase.   June 2025   A hyper-prioritized Global Humanitarian Overview 2025: the cruel math of aid cuts, by Tom Fletcher - United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:   "This is a moment of reckoning. Brutal funding cuts have left us with no other option than to further reduce the number of people we are hoping to save.   Six months after ruthlessly prioritizing those in the direst need, we are left with the cruel math of doing less with less – even as the world around us remains on fire.   Make no mistake: our appeal for less money does not mean that there are less needs. Quite the contrary.   What has changed is that funding for our work has been decimated, even as more lives are shattered by wars and climate-induced disasters, and as our own staff is killed, injured, and detained just for trying to save lives.   What has changed is that more people in positions of power are choosing to finance wars instead of aiding people bearing their brunt; retreating from their obligations under international law instead of upholding them; allowing the worst violations to continue instead of holding perpetrators accountable; repressing women and girls instead of empowering them.   And yet I refuse to believe that humanity is dead. Everywhere I’ve been since taking on this role, I have seen its irrepressible power: In the people who have next to nothing and how they open their doors to those fleeing crises; in the women who have survived atrocities—from Gaza to El Geneina—and how they support their own communities; in the aid providers who, through sheer determination, ingenuity and care, manage to reach people in even the most dangerous and challenging crises.   So, as we launch this hyper-prioritized Global Humanitarian Overview, I am calling on the global community—Governments, businesses, individuals—to meet this moment. Help us deliver for those who need our support the most. Stand up for the laws that protect civilians and protect us as we serve them. Hold those responsible for atrocities to account. Ask yourself whether you did all you could.   This GHO Special Edition reflects our collective response to the most devastating funding cuts that our sector has ever seen. It is a focused, clear-eyed account of what must happen now—where the needs are most urgent, where we can still make the most difference, and where lives are, very literally, on the line.   Reaching this point has not been easy; it has required extremely tough conversations and difficult decisions. And let me be crystal clear: while this document outlines what we must do, right now, to save as many lives as we can with the resources that we have, it does not – in any way – replace our meticulous and painstaking planning for this year. The entirety of our initial Global Humanitarian Overview remains fully valid and should be fully funded. This hyper-prioritized version is the tip of the iceberg, not the whole effort.   What we are launching today is a call to action, not a plea for charity—it’s an appeal for responsibility, solidarity, and a future built on humanity.   Inaction is not inevitable. It is a choice—and one we can refuse to make. The stakes could not be higher".   http://humanitarianaction.info/document/hyper-prioritized-global-humanitarian-overview-2025-cruel-math-aid-cuts http://humanitarianaction.info/ Visit the related web page
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