UNICEF Survey Finds Low Acute Malnutrition Rates in Gaza, Challenging Famine Narrative

On July 22, a UNICEF-led team published the “Gaza Nutrition SMART Survey Result,” the most comprehensive hunger study since the war started almost three years prior. The report indicates that wasting, a marker of extreme thinness, is low throughout Gaza, suggesting the absence of widespread acute malnutrition. Analysis of World Bank and Integrated Food Security Phase Classification data shows an acute child malnutrition rate of 0.5 percent, among the region’s lowest.

The study also found that roughly 12 percent of Gaza’s children suffer from stunting, a condition linked to chronic poor nutrition, which is less than half the 26 percent stunting rate reported for the broader region by UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank. These findings contrast sharply with statements made about a severe famine in Gaza a year earlier. The data were highlighted in a presentation uploaded by the UNICEF-coordinated group on the same day.