Study finds anaemia among almost all surveyed women

One year after the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which was expected to let more food into the territory, hunger remains a daily reality across the Gaza Strip. A study by Médecins du Monde, published on a Thursday, found that 93 percent of pregnant or breastfeeding women surveyed had symptoms of anaemia, a condition closely linked to malnutrition. The report appeared the day after the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war.

The same study found that just 17 percent of the surveyed women had a sufficiently varied diet to meet their nutritional needs.

One family's daily queue in Khan Yunis

The numbers translate into hours spent waiting for food. Niyaha al-Masri, a 35-year-old mother of eight, spends six hours or more each day queueing at a community kitchen run by humanitarian groups. Her husband was wounded in both legs by an airstrike and cannot compete for food. The family of 10 lives in a tent in Khan Yunis, and the meal from the kitchen is the only food they receive in a day.

• •Without the kitchen, she and her eight children would have "nothing at all", she said.
• •Her children, aged between three and 14, "dream of eating fruit", but the family lacks the means to buy any.
• •One of her sons suffered malnutrition during the 2025 famine; "little by little, his condition is improving".

Masri, who has asthma, keeps returning to the kitchen while her children collect "pieces of nylon, bits of cardboard and chunks of foam" to reinforce their deteriorating tent. She called it "shameful" that her children had to do so.

- Niyaha al-Masri

From famine declaration to contested assessments

Assessments of conditions in Gaza have diverged sharply. In August 2025, a UN-backed body, the IPC, declared a state of famine in Gaza; Israel quickly denounced the declaration as a lie. By December, the UN had lifted that declaration, saying the ceasefire had allowed enough supplies in over the course of two months.

The disagreement continues. COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry organisation for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, told AFP the humanitarian situation in Gaza was stable. Shaun Hughes of the UN World Food Programme, however, said the food security situation "is still extremely serious".

What malnutrition leaves behind

The scale of food insecurity remains large. July figures cited by Hughes show that 1.4 million of Gaza's roughly 2.1 million people are acutely food insecure, and 200,000 of them are "just one step below famine".

Hughes also pointed to the quality of what people eat. "Dietary diversity is a major food security issue in Gaza", he said, explaining that children and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers need micronutrients from protein foods, vegetables and fruit. Malnutrition weakens children's immune systems, leaving them vulnerable to illness, and stunts their growth.

- Shaun Hughes, UN World Food Programme

Hughes warned that repeated episodes of acute malnutrition in childhood cause cognitive and physical impairments that persist into later life. At Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, Israa al-Najjar, head of the malnutrition unit, said she had "observed an increase in syndromes and conditions" linked to malnutrition affecting the immune system.

For Masri's family, the situation is unchanged: her children continue gathering materials to shore up the tent while she makes her daily visit to the community kitchen.