A lesser-known scourge is acute hunger among pregnant and lactating women and “the devastating domino effect”From this lack of healthy eating in thousands of newborns.
“In Gaza hospitals I have met several newborns who weighed less than a kilogram and their tiny breasts were heaving with the effort of staying alive,” said Mrs Ingram.
Born in danger
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link, he explained that babies with low birth weight are about 20 times more likely to die than babies with normal weight.
The UNICEF spokesperson noted that before the war in 2022, an average of 250 babies per month, or about five percent, were born weighing less than 2.5 kilograms at birth, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
In the first half of 2025, even with fewer births, that proportion rose to 10 percent of all births, or about 300 babies per month, rising to 460 per month in the three months before the ceasefire.
That equates to 15 a day, almost double the pre-war average.
“Low birth weight is usually caused by poor maternal nutrition, increased maternal stress, and limited prenatal care.”Ms. Ingram explained.
“In Gaza we are witnessing all three, and the response to them is not moving fast enough or on the scale required.”
reality of war
The UNICEF spokesperson added that in October alone, 8,300 pregnant and lactating women were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition. “in a place where there was no discernible malnutrition among this group before October 2023.”
“This pattern is a grave warning and will likely lead to low birth weight babies being born in the Gaza Strip in the coming months,” he said, adding: “This is not over.”
The UN has responded to this dire situation by replacing incubators, ventilators and other vital equipment destroyed in the conflict.
UNICEF has also provided supplements to tens of thousands of pregnant and lactating women to prevent malnutrition, screening young children for acute malnutrition and enrolling them in treatment.
But to improve the response, more aid urgently needs to reach the Gaza Strip.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday that “Persistent impediments” to reaching the most vulnerable Problems with aid include insecurity, challenges in customs clearance, delays and denials of cargo at crossings. Aid teams also highlight that limited routes are provided for the transport of humanitarian supplies within the Strip.
Rafah Call
Opening the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza could help increase the flow of humanitarian trucks and reduce the number of malnourished children, UNICEF’s Ms. Ingram explained.
“We really need all kinds of help to arrive, particularly nutritious food through trade routes,” he added, highlighting that local markets need to be replenished with more commercial products so that prices can come down and items such as fruits and vegetables, meat and dairy can be affordable for families.
The UNICEF spokesperson insisted that the two-month ceasefire “should offer families security, not more losses,” recalling that more than 70 children have died since it began on October 10.
“Generations of families, including those now born into this ceasefire, have been forever altered by what was inflicted on them,” Ms. Ingram said, noting that she sees and hears the generational impacts of the conflict on mothers and babies “almost every day in hospitals, nutrition clinics and family tents.”
“It’s less visible than blood and wounds, but it’s everywhere,” he said.
Ms Ingram insisted that the “mother-to-child domino effect” – the impact of malnutrition, stress and displacement on pregnant women and their babies – should and could have been avoided.
“No child should be scarred by war before taking their first breath.” he said, pointing to the “brutal reality” of the conflict and “restrictions on Israeli aid, which exhausted hospitals and starved and stressed mothers.”
“So much suffering could have been avoided if international humanitarian law had been respected,” he concluded.