A new analysis released on Thursday shows improvements in food security and child nutrition across the Gaza Strip. However, the United Nations has cautioned that this progress, which is largely due to expanded access to humanitarian assistance, remains fragile due to severe constraints resulting from Israeli military operations, access restrictions, and shortages of essential supplies.
Although access to Gaza has improved, only one crossing – Kerem Shalom/ Abu Salem – in the south remains open, which limits the flow of essential humanitarian and commercial goods. At the same time, Israeli attacks continue despite the ceasefire.
In a joint statement on Thursday, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) emphasized that the gains in food security and nutrition indicators demonstrate the rapid improvement in conditions when humanitarian responses and commercial activities are scaled up.
Nevertheless, the UN agencies warned that families in Gaza are still struggling to meet their basic needs, and that these improvements could quickly be reversed without sustained humanitarian assistance, the reactivation of the private sector, funding and investment in recovery. The people of Gaza are still struggling to rebuild their livelihoods, local food systems, and essential services, with the result that the majority of the population is dependent on humanitarian aid.
The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis revealed that food security and child nutrition have improved since December 2025. Currently, an estimated 1.4 million people — 67 percent of Gaza’s population — are experiencing crisis levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3) or worse. This represents a reduction from 1.6 million people, accounting for 77 percent of the population, at the end of last year.
However, the analysis found that an estimated 212,000 people remain in emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4), many of whom live in areas near the Israeli-controlled "yellow line," where access to humanitarian aid and services is particularly limited.
The North Gaza, Gaza, Deir Al-Balah, and Khan Younis governorates are expected to face "alert" levels of malnutrition (IPC Phase 2). Some areas near the "yellow line" were inaccessible to analysts during the survey period, resulting in insufficient data for classification.
“There is progress on food security in Gaza, but it is fragile and can easily be reversed,” said Carl Skau, WFP’s Acting Executive Director.
“The overall humanitarian situation remains brutal: families lack water, sanitation and medicine. We need sustained access, funding and stability so people of Gaza can begin recovery.”
Since the nominal ceasefire agreement was reached in October 2025, there has been a significant scale-up in food and nutrition assistance. In May 2026 alone, food parcels reached around 1.5 million people, cash assistance was provided to around 700,000 people, and 60 percent of children under the age of five received nutrition support, with access to acute malnutrition treatment also improving.
This is a significant contrast to September 2025, when only around 500,000 people received some form of food assistance, and less than 1 percent of children under five received nutrition coverage. Immediate improvements in food security were observed following the scale-up, and the IPC confirms that this trend has continued. Still, food rations remain insufficient in quantity, quality, and dietary diversity. The problem is further compounded by inconsistent commercial imports of fresh produce and proteins.
“Acute malnutrition has fallen, but many children are still going hungry, and some children may never fully recover from prolonged lack of proper nutrition,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“This progress shows that when humanitarian access improves and aid gets through, children can be pulled back from the brink. But it rests on a supplementary feeding program that doesn’t reach all children, and where funding is running out. “
An overall improvement in malnutrition rates is largely attributed to the rapid expansion of nutrition prevention programs and increased access to treatment for severe and moderate malnutrition. However, these gains depend heavily on sustained humanitarian assistance and have occurred despite continued shortages of nutritious foods, recurrent disease outbreaks, limited access to safe water and sanitation, and the near collapse of livelihoods.
Over the coming year, some 74,000 children are expected to require treatment for acute malnutrition, and approximately 25,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women will need nutritional support. Meanwhile, adults continue to reduce their own food intake to prioritize their children.
"The latest IPC analysis must not be mistaken for a sign that Gaza's children are recovering. It is a warning that humanitarian assistance has helped prevent an even deeper catastrophe, but those gains remain dangerously fragile,” Ahmad Alhendawi, said Save the Children's Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe, commenting on the findings.
“Food consumption is still inadequate, humanitarian assistance remains the only lifeline for most families, and every disruption to humanitarian access risks undoing the modest progress that has been made.”
Meanwhile, FAO, UNICEF, and WFP stress that sustained peace, safety, and security are essential to enable people to return to their farms, businesses, and communities and begin rebuilding their lives. The continued flow of lifesaving humanitarian relief through Jordan, Israel, and Egypt, as well as via crossings in the north and south, is also essential to Gaza's recovery.
The UN agencies are also calling for the immediate provision of shelter materials, fuel, cooking gas, and agricultural supplies via the private sector, in addition to expanding commercial access to enable markets to recover and stabilize. They stress that restoring water, sanitation, and health systems is critical to ensuring recovery; otherwise, disease outbreaks risk eroding the gains in nutrition.
“Food security in Gaza cannot recover unless local food production starts again and farmers, herders, fishers and other producers can rebuild their livelihoods,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu.
“Producers need access to farmland and the sea, and to seeds, tools, livestock supplies and other agricultural inputs, as well as technical support. Restrictions on agricultural imports and humanitarian supplies must be lifted. Without these essentials, food production and security will remain a pressing situation."
WFP, FAO, and UNICEF are appealing to the international community to ramp up flexible and predictable funding for food and nutrition assistance, agricultural production, healthcare, water and sanitation services, and livelihood recovery programs.
They warn that, as current funding for Gaza is quickly running out, failing to mobilize additional resources could reverse hard-won progress and endanger the lives of 2.1 million people in Gaza.
The 2026 Flash Appeal, released in December, aimed to raise just over US$4 billion to support nearly three million people across Gaza and the West Bank. However, it is currently only 37 percent funded, having received just $1.5 billion so far, which significantly constrains life-saving operations.
Palestinians continue to face Israeli strikes and repeated forced displacement
The new IPC report comes amid ongoing Israeli military strikes, recurring security incidents, forced displacement, and mounting movement restrictions. Escalating Israeli attacks on Gaza continue to endanger Palestinians throughout the blockaded and besieged enclave.
On Thursday, speaking at the UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres stressed that, despite the ceasefire in Gaza, civilians continue "to pay a heavy price every day."
"People are being killed in their homes, in their communities, and while carrying out ordinary acts of daily life — as Israel increases its control of Gaza," Guterres said.
"At the same time, living conditions remain intolerable, and horrific diseases are spreading — with humanitarian operations heavily impeded."
War monitors documented over 40 Israeli attacks on Gaza in June alone, marking the highest monthly total since the ceasefire took effect in October 2023. The escalation continued into July, with the UN reporting that at least 57 Palestinians, including six children, were killed in Gaza between July 13 and July 20 alone.
Reported incidents have included attacks on a hospital in northern Gaza, a funeral procession, and residential buildings. Recent Israeli attacks have also targeted Gaza's police forces.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has warned that the killing of civilians in these attacks “raises concerns of continuing violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes, and other possible atrocity crimes.”
Since the ceasefire took effect nine months ago, Israeli security forces have killed more than 1,100 Palestinians in Gaza, bringing the death toll since October 2023 to over 73,000. Among the confirmed fatalities are more than 21,200 children. An estimated 58,000 children have lost one or both parents.
The real death toll is believed to be higher. Verified casualties also include at least 595 aid workers, 401 UN staff members, 1,700 healthcare workers, and 260 journalists. Additionally, Israeli military forces have injured over 173,000 people in Gaza. Of those injured, an estimated 43,000 have suffered life-changing disabilities.
Israeli military airstrikes and attacks reportedly occur on both sides of the so-called Yellow Line, where Israeli forces withdrew in accordance with the ceasefire agreement. However, Israeli forces continue to move the Yellow Line further into Gaza. They now control an estimated 70 percent of the territory, up from approximately 53 percent in October 2025, when the ceasefire agreement went into effect.
Israel's actions are forcing Palestinians into ever-smaller pockets of land, raising serious concerns about ethnic cleansing as a crime against humanity targeting the civilian population, or even as an ongoing genocide against Palestinians as a group.
Systematic atrocity crimes, lack of accountability, and impunity
In June, a United Nations commission of inquiry issued a damning report stating that Israeli authorities and security forces are still committing genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Gaza Strip. This follows the commission's conclusion last year that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinian population of Gaza.
The updated report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel emphasizes that Israeli military operations have continued on a large scale and in a systematic manner. These operations have resulted in an unprecedented number of deaths, injuries, and cases of trauma among Palestinian children.
The Commission reiterated that deliberately targeting children is key to proving the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, either wholly or in part. According to international law, Israeli authorities are obligated to uphold children's rights in all areas under their jurisdiction or control, including occupied territories.
A previous report found evidence that Israeli authorities and security forces have committed four categories of acts that constitute genocide in the Gaza Strip with the intent to destroy the Palestinian group in whole or in part. These acts include killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, and deliberately inflicting conditions of life on the group that are calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part.
These conclusions mirror the findings of several international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights, as well as Israeli organizations such as B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
Independent human rights experts and the world’s leading genocide scholars have also determined that Israel's actions in Gaza constitute not only war crimes and crimes against humanity but also qualify as a genocide against the Palestinian population in Gaza.
Against this backdrop, human rights groups and humanitarian organizations around the world are expressing mounting concern about the impunity that Israeli military personnel and government officials enjoy for committing some of the worst international crimes.