Attachments
Key messages
• Nutrition security is about diets, services, and care – and all three of these key determinants are direly impacted in the Gaza Strip.
• When humanitarian access has improved, it has contributed to modest improvements in food security indicators, and the diets of children (aged 6–23 months). This was evident during the month of April.
• However, recurrent and forced population displacement since the start of the conflict continues to negatively impact access and availability. Poor access to the population as well as the population’s inability to reach services hinders the detection and treatment of children with acute malnutrition. Displacement also impacts care and practices, since people on the move risk losing their assets and face difficult living conditions.
• With the recent displacements in Rafah, and the escalation of conflict in the entire Gaza Strip, the diets of young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women have reversed back and remain extremely worrying.
Nutrition situation
The Nutrition Vulnerability Analysis (NVA) covered April through May 2024, with data collected between 1 April and 24 May, 2024. In this current NVA, the analysis considered two major geographical areas, separated by the Wadi Gaza: Northern and Southern Gaza.1
• According to UNICEF’s latest post-distribution monitoring (PDM) assessment, carried out between 20 and 24 May across the Gaza Strip, 93% of children aged 6–23 months had eaten two or fewer food groups in the 24 hours preceding the survey, (7% had eaten three or four), while among pregnant and breastfeeding women, 96% had eaten two or fewer food groups. The high level of deprivation in dietary diversity, and de facto micronutrient deprivation, can seriously jeopardize both women’s health and their children’s development.2
• In the Gaza Strip, 85% of parents reported that their children had gone without eating for a whole day due to lack of money or other resources, while almost 100% of households reported having to skip meals or eat less food to secure their child’s diet, according to the UNICEF PDM conducted in May 2024.
• Almost 90% of children under 5 years of age are affected by one or more diseases; 52% have had diarrhoea in the past two weeks; and 54% have experienced fever based on the World Food Programme (WFP) CATI (computerassisted telephone interviews) between 7 and 23 May. Health conditions remain generally poor and can directly threaten the nutritional status of children under 5 and other vulnerable populations, such as children under 6 months, or the elderly.
• Access to health care continues to deteriorate due to sustained destruction of health facilities. Despite the humanitarian efforts to mitigate these impacts, in dire circumstances, around 60% of the 97 primary health care (PHC) facilities and 73% of the 56 hospitals (Static and Field) are still not functional or partially functional across the Gaza Strip.3
• Household access to safe water remains very limited. According to the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster, the available water supply is estimated to be only 2–9 litres per capita per day (l/c/d) compared to 85 l/c/d before October 2023. The WFP CATI found that around 80% of households listed “water” as a priority need. This situation is particularly worrying for formula-fed babies, and constitutes a proven risk for a rise in infectious disease, including diarrheal illness and hepatitis A.
• With minor gains in humanitarian access, a modest improvement was reflected in food security indicators in April. However, such improvement is dependent on regular and continuous access to and availability of food and health services. In April, access to and scale-up of basic services certainly allowed for a stabilization of the nutrition situation in the South.
• The displacement of more than 1 million people in the South and ground military operations in the North reduced the minor gains achieved in April through the closure, disruption of services and displacement of nutrition sites located in shelters, health services, and hospitals. • In the North, in early April, access to nutrition services was still limited but improved towards the end of the month due to sporadic humanitarian access, allowing the start of prevention activities, as well as early detection and treatment of acute malnutrition.
Nutrition information system
• The conflict and population displacement across Gaza are highly dynamic. Data are still extremely challenging to collect and report due to ongoing insecurity and related access challenges.
• Thanks to the efforts of all partners, data collection improved in Southern Gaza in March and April 2024. In Southern Gaza, despite the displacement of populations from Rafah to Khan Younis and the Middle areas observed in May, as well as the relocation of humanitarian operations, partners managed to continue screening and remote data collection. In Northern Gaza, access challenges affected the delivery of services and disrupted ongoing nutrition programmes. This in turn made it difficult to ensure that children at risk were being screened early and regularly for care, which reduced the availability of anthropometric data over March and April. However, by end of April, in Northern Gaza, nutrition partners managed to provide nutrition screening and treatment services and restart collecting anthropometric data. Additional data collected between 12 and 25 May in both North Gaza and Gaza City were made available and both data sets were used to estimate the nutrition situation in Northern Gaza. The quality of data is improving overall, and secondary data are available to monitor the situation.
• Nutrition Cluster partners have been exploring alternative methods of nutrition evidence generation depending on the different scenarios. When the situation allows, more well accepted, traditional surveys should be conducted. While this would represent only a single point in time, it would at least provide a baseline picture of the nutritional status of children across Gaza that the humanitarian community can use to plan and expand services.