One out of every ten children in Gaza under the age of five suffers from acute malnutrition, due to the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Strip since October 7, according to preliminary data from the United Nations through arm measurements that show levels of wasting among children.

The food supplies that Gaza depends on have diminished from their level before the aggression, and relief workers reported clear signs of famine, especially in the northern and central areas of the Strip, which were most affected by the aggression.

According to a memorandum issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, measurements of the arm circumferences of thousands of young children and infants showed that 9.6 percent of them suffer from acute malnutrition, which represents an increase of about 12 times from pre-aggression levels.

In northern Gaza, the rate was 16.2 percent, or one in six children.

Relief workers reported the difficulty of delivering food aid to hospitals, in light of the continuing Israeli bombing and the Israeli occupation forces’ invasion of various parts of the Gaza Strip.

The ActionAid charity said some people are resorting to eating grass. She added, "Everyone in Gaza is now suffering from hunger, and people only receive one and a half or two liters of non-drinking water daily to meet all their needs."

The Islamic Relief Organization quoted one of its employees in Gaza as saying, "My children and I have not eaten fruit or vegetables for months, and people are being killed when they try to meet aid trucks coming from the United Nations."

He added, "We try to make bread from the dried corn that we previously used as animal feed, as it has become rare to find flour... We are relatively lucky compared to most people, who do not have anything at all."

Project Hope, a non-profit organization for relief and development, said that about 15 percent of the pregnant women whose condition was evaluated at its clinic in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip last week were suffering from malnutrition.

It has also reported an increase in cases of anemia or iron deficiency, which can increase the incidence of premature birth and postpartum hemorrhage.

Dr. Santosh Kumar, the organization's medical director, who returned from Gaza last week, said that he and his team reduced their consumption to one meal a day in solidarity with the citizens in the Gaza Strip.