As the Israel-Hamas war drags on with little progress on ceasefire efforts, more than 100 organizations are warning of “mass starvation” in Gaza. Save the Children Gaza Humanitarian Director Rachael Cummings said Sunday that “the situation in Gaza is catastrophic for children and increasingly now for adults.”
Cummings, who has been based in Gaza since early 2024, said conditions at Save the Children's clinics in Gaza are reaching new levels of crisis, and she expects the numbers of malnourished to rise.
“In the first two weeks of July, we've seen exactly the same number of children we saw in the whole of June, and we're expecting that trajectory, sadly, to increase," she said. "The number of children who are malnourished -- very concerningly, pregnant women, women who are breastfeeding are also malnourished."
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"But this morning, I went to our clinic in Deir Al-Balah, about 10 minutes from where I am right now. It was absolutely packed, and it was a scene I had never witnessed before, and I've been working in this sector for over 20 years in the whole of Africa, in various places around the world. And every child in the health center today was malnourished, but also every adult was extremely thin, gaunt-looking, exhausted. The situation is absolutely terrible here,” Cummings said.
Rachael Cummings, Gaza humanitarian director for Save the Children International, appears on "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" on Sunday, July 27, 2025.
ABC News
According to the World Health Organization, nearly 30,000 children under 5 are now malnourished.
The crisis, however, isn’t just in the streets, where people are trying to collect food and water from distribution vans, but also in Gaza’s hospitals and health care centers, Cummings said. Famine has caused many to seek help, given the mounting health complications endured by those in the city.
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"And for months I've said, how can it get worse for children? It cannot get any worse for children, but apparently, yes, it can get worse for children. And now, we are seeing all of the coping mechanisms that families have deployed within -- with mothers eating less than three meals a day to two meals a day, to one meal a day. Now, they're not having a meal a day. And this is very, very concerning. And this is at scale,” Cummings said.
Israel began new airdrops of humanitarian aid this weekend, though Cummings said she had concerns whether that will be effective enough to get people things like food, medicine and hygiene supplies.
"We welcome the humanitarian supplies entering Gaza, of course. And we need to do that in a controlled manner. Airdrops are not in a controlled manner, and one airdrop is equal to around one truck,” Cummings said. "So we need to bring in humanitarian supplies, supplies over land through the recognized routes. We need the U.N. system be enabled to manage the distributions."
Israel announced on Friday plans to begin new airdrops of humanitarian aid, though Cummings had concerns whether that will be effective enough to get people things like food, medicine and hygiene supplies.
“Airdrops are not in a controlled manner, and one airdrop is equal to around one truck,” Cummings said.
On Sunday, Israel announced a "tactical" military pause in three areas in Gaza. Israel said that it would allow the United Nations and other aid organizations into “secure” regions to deliver food and medicine.
“We know as Save the Children, as humanitarian agencies, how to do safe and dignified distributions. So yes, we welcome the fact that now the U.N. is allowed to bring in humanitarian supplies, including food, including medicines, including nutrition commodities, and including hygiene supplies,” Cummings said.