Long-term impacts on cognitive growth, health issues, and emotional trauma: The persistent effect of food shortages on Gazan children's lives
Crisis in Gaza: A Generation at Risk from Malnutrition and Conflict
Children in Gaza, who have been out of school for two years, face a daunting future upon returning to the classroom. According to reports, they are likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders and learning difficulties due to cognitive development interruptions caused by malnutrition.
The long-term food insecurity in Gaza has severely impaired the children's growth, brain development, and future prospects. Children under five are suffering acute malnutrition at alarming rates, with nearly one in five in Gaza City currently affected and close to 12,000 children under five recorded as acutely malnourished in July 2025 alone.
Poor nutrition during the critical first 1,000 days of life—which correspond to the first three years—is particularly damaging, leading to irreversible brain development deficits. These deficits translate into poorer cognitive function observed later in school and have negative impacts on economic productivity in adulthood.
The lack of adequate food and medical supplies, caused by the blockade and conflict-related restrictions, has pushed the situation into famine, making recovery extremely difficult. The consequences include physical stunted growth and wasting, permanent cognitive impairments, raised child mortality rates, and psychosocial trauma and disrupted education.
Over 190 people, including at least 96 children, have died of hunger and malnutrition-related causes recently. Save the Children reported that 43% of Gaza's breastfeeding mothers needed treatment for malnutrition.
The developmental delays caused by malnutrition can lead to life-long challenges for an entire generation in Gaza. A lack of vitamin A, iron, folic acid, and zinc can have severe effects on pregnant women and children, but the damage is often not reversible.
Rob Williams, head of the War Child Alliance charity, emphasized the long-term, invisible injuries that malnutrition can cause, which may affect a whole generation in Gaza for years to come. Lynnda Kiess, a nutritionist at the World Food Programme, stated that poor nutrition during a child's first 1,000 days can have lasting effects on their school and economic performance.
The World Bank states that good nutrition is essential for human capital development and future economic growth. The prolonged food insecurity in Gaza for the past 22 months has interrupted the growth of children and weakened their immune systems, making them more susceptible to illnesses. Good nutrition contributes to human capital development, and the lack of it can cause countries to lose up to 10% of their GDP due to malnutrition.
Investigative reports suggest that aid queues in Gaza, run by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, have become death traps. Famine was declared in Gaza by an international hunger monitor due to Israel blocking aid, causing a daily shortage of food, medicine, and shelter for 2.2 million people.
Children who have had insufficient access to food can develop lower IQ scores, with an average of seven to 10 points less than their peers who did not experience acute malnutrition in the same age group. The interruption to cognitive development caused by malnutrition can cause difficulties with concentrating in class for children in Gaza.
Some women in Gaza have reported having no breast milk as they grow weary, hungry, and thirsty. In the case of vitamin A deficiency, children can develop night blindness or eye malformations, which occur too late to be reversed.
The Barbados Nutrition Study, a 55-year project, found that adults who experienced malnutrition in their first year of life were more likely to develop behavioral problems. The combined effect of prolonged hunger and conflict creates a generation of children at extreme risk of lifelong disability, poverty, and lost potential unless urgent and unrestricted humanitarian aid allows for rehabilitation and recovery.
- The world news reports a crisis in Israel, Gaza, where children, out of school for two years, risk post-traumatic stress and learning difficulties due to malnutrition and conflict.
- Children in Gaza suffer acute malnutrition at alarming rates, with nearly one in five in Gaza City affected, and close to 12,000 children under five recorded as acutely malnourished in July 2025 alone.
- Poor nutrition, especially during the first 1,000 days of life, can result in irreversible brain development deficits and poorer cognitive function in school.
- The lack of adequate food and medical supplies in Gaza, caused by the blockade and conflict-related restrictions, has pushed the situation into famine.
- Over 190 people, including at least 96 children, have died of hunger and malnutrition-related causes recently, and 43% of Gaza's breastfeeding mothers needed treatment for malnutrition.
- Developmental delays caused by malnutrition can lead to life-long challenges for an entire generation in Gaza, with severe effects on pregnant women and children.
- Rob Williams emphasized the long-term, invisible injuries that malnutrition can cause, possibly affecting an entire generation in Gaza for years to come.
- The World Bank states that good nutrition is essential for human capital development and future economic growth.
- Aid queues in Gaza have become death traps, and famine was declared in Gaza by an international hunger monitor due to Israel blocking aid.
- Children who have had insufficient access to food can develop lower IQ scores, with an average of seven to 10 points less than their peers who did not experience acute malnutrition in the same age group.
- Some women in Gaza have reported having no breast milk due to their growing weary, hungry, and thirsty.
- In the case of vitamin A deficiency, children can develop night blindness or eye malformations, which occur too late to be reversed.
- The combined effect of prolonged hunger and conflict creates a generation of children at extreme risk of lifelong disability, poverty, and lost potential.
- Good nutrition contributes to human capital development, and the lack of it can cause countries to lose up to 10% of their GDP due to malnutrition.
- Urgent and unrestricted humanitarian aid is necessary to allow for rehabilitation and recovery of the generation at risk in Gaza, which faces daunting future prospects due to malnutrition and conflict.
