No reduction in Gaza hunger since truce: WHO

TDT | Geneva

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The World Health Organization said yesterday there had been little improvement in the amount of aid going into Gaza since a ceasefire took hold -- and no observable reduction in hunger.

“The situation still remains catastrophic because what’s entering is not enough,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told an online press briefing from the UN health agency’s Geneva headquarters.

Since the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, there has been “no dent in hunger, because there is not enough food”, he warned. Israel repeatedly cut off aid to the Gaza Strip during the war, exacerbating dire humanitarian conditions. The United Nations said that caused a famine in parts of the Palestinian territory.

Since the start of 2025, 411 people are known to have died from the effects of malnutrition in Gaza, including 109 children, Richard Peeperkorn, the WHO’s representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters.

“All of these deaths were preventable,” stressed Teresa Zakaria, WHO’s unit head for humanitarian and disaster action. More than 600,000 people in Gaza were currently facing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity”, she added.

But while the agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump provides for the entry of 600 trucks per day, Tedros said currently only between 200 and 300 trucks were getting in daily.

And “a good number of the trucks are commercial”, he said, when many people in the territory have no resources to buy goods. “That reduces the beneficiary size,” he said.