Gaza Hospitals Overflowing With Patients, As Malnutrition Surges

The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, UN officials again warned on Monday, describing hospitals overflowing with critically malnourished children, and desperate civilians risking their lives to secure food for their families

UNITED NATIONS, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th Aug, 2025) The humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate, UN officials again warned on Monday, describing hospitals overflowing with critically malnourished children, and desperate civilians risking their lives to secure food for their families.

Olga Cherevko from aid coordination office, OCHA, said conditions at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis were “shocking” when she visited there on Sunday, with hallways crammed with patients.

Many were transferred from militarized aid distribution points or along convoy routes.

“Everyone who is trying to find food and take care of their family…these people are continuously being killed and injured,” she said.

Ms. Cherevko witnessed five injured people and three bodies brought in from food collection areas. She recounted meeting a young couple whose desperate attempt to get flour ended in tragedy when the husband was critically injured.

“This is the first and the last time that she is going to let him do something like this,” Ms. Cherevko said, adding that civilians have “no other options anymore” to avoid starvation.

The children’s ward at Nasser was full of malnourished patients, she added, and even injured adults were “extremely frail, extremely thin and very, very hungry.”

Akihiro Seita, Director of Health at the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA), highlighted another grim reality: the near-total absence of sugar, fruit or any sugary foods in Gaza.

Prices have soared to as much as $100 per kilogramme, he said, noting that for children with type 1 diabetes, the lack of sugar makes treating hypoglycaemia – a potentially fatal side effect of insulin – nearly impossible.

“What wouldn’t even be a problem in a normal world is now a deadly reality in Gaza,” he said, calling it “unbearably cruel.”

Specialized nutrition supplies for malnourished children have also run out, he said, citing reports from other UN agencies, with recent deliveries exhausted or looted by people in desperate need.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) condemned the killing of six Palestinian journalists in Gaza after their tent was targeted by Israeli military forces, calling it a “grave breach of international humanitarian law.”

Five of those killed worked for the influential Qatari-based news network Al Jazeera, including 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif.

Israel alleges that he was a Hamas operative, which Al Jazeera strongly denies. The network described it as an "assassination" and “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.”

“Israel must respect and protect all civilians, including journalists,” OHCHR said in a post on social media, calling also for immediate, safe and unhindered access to Gaza for all media workers.

Since 7 October 2023, at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the conflict, the office reported.