UN: 14,000 Gaza Infants Face Acute Malnutrition Crisis

Around 100 UN trucks with emergency aid have been permitted to roll into Gaza on Tuesday. The UN estimates that 14,000 infants are suffering from acute malnutrition.

» Published: May 20 2025

UN: 14,000 Gaza Infants Face Acute Malnutrition Crisis
Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP/TT

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"It is absolutely necessary to get supplies into Gaza to save approximately 14,000 infants who are likely to suffer from severe acute malnutrition," writes a spokesperson for the UN's humanitarian coordination organization Ocha in an email.

"We must get the supplies in as quickly as possible, preferably within 48 hours."

The request for the "around 100" trucks comes from the UN, which has received the green light from Israel.

We have requested and received approval to drive in more trucks today, many more than yesterday, says Jens Laerke, spokesperson for Ocha, to reporters in Geneva.

A spokesperson for Israel's Foreign Ministry states on Tuesday evening that 93 trucks have passed into Gaza, writes AFP.

A spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says in turn to the news agency that it is a matter of "a few dozen" trucks and that they have had trouble accessing the supplies.

Want to save children

A few trucks were let over the border already on Monday. These have not yet reached those in need, stated Ocha chief Tom Fletcher in an interview with BBC earlier on Tuesday.

He also claimed, seemingly incorrectly, that 14,000 infants in Gaza risk dying if they do not receive emergency aid within 48 hours.

The emergency aid now being let in is the first to the Gaza Strip in eleven weeks, since Israel blocked all imports of aid, citing that they want to put further pressure on the terrorist-stamped Hamas. Before the outbreak of war in the autumn of 2023, several hundred trucks with humanitarian aid crossed the border daily.

Tom Fletcher now hopes for a significant increase.

We must flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid, he says.


"Minimal" aid

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the emergency aid now being let in should be "minimal" and that it must not reach Hamas, which governs in Gaza. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid, which Hamas denies.

Sweden's Minister for Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dousa (M) says in a written comment to TT that "large-scale humanitarian deliveries" must be resumed immediately.

"Fully loaded trucks with Swedish support are standing ready at the border, while thousands of children on the other side are crying out for help to survive. It is simply completely wrong and despicable."

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), recently stated that two million people are starving in Gaza.

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By TTTranslated and adapted by Sweden Herald
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