The Medical Consequences of Starvation

The “worst-case scenario of famine” is unfolding in Gaza, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned in a July 29 alert, adding that “access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels.” Widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths, the IPC, a United Nations-affiliated organization, added, calling for “immediate action” to be taken to end “catastrophic human suffering.”

“This is an incredibly important health catastrophe right now in Gaza, both in the short term and in the long term,” says Dr. Deborah Frank, a professor of pediatrics at Boston University’s Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, assistant professor of community health science at the School of Public Health, director of the Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center, and founder of Children’s HealthWatch, which monitors the health of young children globally. “It is fixable, but it’s not a quick or easy fix. You need to have skilled people, and you need to have the supplies.”

According to the IPC, more than 20,000 children in Gaza were treated for acute malnutrition from April to mid-July, and more than 3,000 of them were severely malnourished. Gaza’s health ministry said July 28 that nearly 150 people have died from malnutrition since the Israel-Gaza war began in October 2023, including at least 88 children.