UN says over 10,000 children with acute malnutrition in Gaza City

More than 10,000 children need treatment for acute malnutrition in Gaza City, where the Israeli army launched a major ground offensive on Tuesday, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported.

"The forced and massive displacement of families from Gaza City is a deadly threat to the most vulnerable," said Tess Ingram, a UNICEF spokesperson in southern Gaza's Al-Mawassi zone.

Speaking to journalists at a televised U.N. press briefing in Geneva, Ingram warned of worsening rates of child malnutrition.

"We estimate that 26,000 children in the Gaza Strip currently require treatment for acute malnutrition, including more than 10,000 in Gaza City alone," she said.

She explained that in August, more than one in eight children examined in the Gaza Strip suffered from acute malnutrition, "the highest level ever recorded."

In Gaza City, that figure was one in five.

Nutrition centres in Gaza City have been "forced to shut this week due to evacuation orders and the military escalation," Ingram added.

The Israeli army claims those evacuating southward to the Al-Mawassi area will find food, tents and medicine.

However, nearly two years into the war, Israel has frequently bombed so-called "humanitarian zones" in the Gaza Strip, claiming to target Hamas fighters there.

"It is inhumane to expect nearly half a million children, battered and traumatized by over 700 days of unrelenting conflict, to flee one hellscape to end up in another," Ingram noted.

About 40 percent of the population of Gaza City and surrounding areas, estimated at one million by the U.N., has been displaced, according to an Israeli military official.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the various parties.

Around 150,000 people have fled Gaza City to the south since Aug. 14, Ingram said.

According to UNICEF's team on the ground, people are still moving "inside and around" Gaza City, unable to seek refuge elsewhere.

The October 2023 attack by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza has killed at least 64,964 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the enclave's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.