On the event date, June 28, 2025, Gaza's Government Media Office said 66 children had died of malnutrition during Israel's war, blaming a tightened siege that has blocked milk, nutritional supplements and other food aid from entering the territory. The same day, Israeli forces intensified attacks across Gaza, killing at least 60 Palestinians, including 20 people in the Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City, according to the report carried by Al Jazeera.
The statement from Gaza authorities reflected a crisis that humanitarian agencies have been warning about for months. UNICEF had already said the number of malnourished children in Gaza was rising at an alarming rate. The agency said 5,119 children aged between six months and five years were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone, nearly 50% more than in April and 150% more than in February, when a ceasefire was in place and aid was entering in larger quantities. Those numbers show a system that is not just under strain but accelerating into collapse.
The pace of admissions points to a humanitarian emergency measured in both deaths and preventable illness. UNICEF's regional director, Edouard Beigbeder, said 16,736 children had been admitted for malnutrition treatment in just 150 days, an average of 112 children a day. He said food, water and nutrition treatments were being blocked from reaching children and called on Israel to allow large-scale aid deliveries through all crossings. Gaza's media office used even sharper language, accusing Israel of weaponizing starvation and describing the blockade as a war crime.
The report also tied the food crisis to the violence around aid distribution. The Tuffah strikes were part of broader attacks that left at least 60 people dead on Saturday, while another person was killed near a US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid point in southern Rafah. Gaza officials said more than 550 people had been killed at or near GHF sites since the group began operating on May 19. The organization has become one of the most disputed parts of the war because it is presented by Israel and the United States as a solution to aid delivery while many aid groups say its system is unsafe and militarized.
Al Jazeera's reporting painted a picture of families making impossible choices: stay away from distribution sites and go hungry, or risk being caught in the violence that surrounds them. The war's toll has also widened beyond immediate casualties. Hospitals are struggling to function, power and fuel remain scarce and the blockade has made ordinary survival tasks, from cooking to storing food to treating children, far more difficult. In that context, the figure of 66 malnutrition deaths is not just a statistic but a marker of how Gaza's humanitarian system is collapsing under pressure.
The Gaza authorities also urged the United Nations to intervene and open the crossings immediately, and they blamed Israel as well as allied governments including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany for the catastrophe. The urgency of that appeal reflected the scale of the crisis: food is now only one part of the emergency, and without safe access to aid, the territory's children face hunger, illness and a longer list of preventable losses.
