DUBAI: Israeli restrictions on food and humanitarian aid have led to alarming levels of malnutrition in Gaza, with devastating consequences for pregnant women, newborns and infants, according to a new analysis by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).
The medical charity said its data shows a sharp deterioration in maternal and child health during periods of intense hostilities and siege, particularly in mid-2025.
According to Jack Latour, MSF’s Gaza nursing activity manager, who has worked on famines in the region and recently left Gaza, told Arab News that what stood out about the crisis in the strip is just how avoidable it was.
“At night time in the guest house, you can see the lights of where Rafa is, and right at Rafa is where all the trucks and the aid are,” Latour told Arab News.
“At the same time, every single day I was going to clinics, and I was admitting new cases of severe malnutrition. I was admitting mothers who came in and who were weighing 35 kilos and who were six months pregnant, which is absolutely unbearable.”
MSF’s latest data shows that more than half of 201 mothers treated in neonatal intensive care units in Khan Younis and Gaza City between June 2025 and January 2026 experienced malnutrition during pregnancy. A quarter were still malnourished at the time of delivery.
Meanwhile, about 90 percent of babies born to malnourished mothers were premature, while 84 percent had low birth weight. Infant mortality among this group was reported to be twice as high compared with babies born to well-nourished mothers.
MSF said it identified its first cases of child malnutrition in Gaza in January 2024. By March 2026, nearly 5,000 children, most under the age of 5, had been admitted to its nutrition programs, alongside more than 3,400 pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Latour said the situation has since stabilized but said MSF had still admitted 400 children in the past three months for malnutrition.
“It’s very, very, very fragile. The few trucks that are coming in, the majority of them are commercial and not humanitarian,” she said.
“When you have an 80 percent unemployment rate and you have incredible inflation, the reality is that we’re still seeing people come in every single day struggling to feed their children, even if they’re not reaching the limit of malnutrition.”
Between October and November 2025, about three-quarters of Gaza’s population faced acute food insecurity, according to international assessments. A famine was declared earlier that year, the first such designation in the Middle East.
“My concern is how quickly we can revert back into that famine,” Latour said.
“The fact that Israel is able to deliberately construct and create this environment means it can do it again, and so my concern is, if we’re still seeing insecurities, it’s still so fragile, it’s still very much survival every single day.”
On Jan. 1 this year, Israeli authorities revoked the licenses of 37 humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, including MSF, under newly introduced registration rules. Since then the organization has been hindered in its ability to provide medical support to Gaza.
Latour fears that the loss of humanitarian organisations would result in less exposure and support if the war in Gaza kicked off again.
“You feel so guilty leaving Gaza, and you don’t know when you’re going to see your teams again, and considering how many healthcare workers have been killed, you don’t know if you might not see them again,” Latour said.
