In response to the IPC's confirmation of famine in Gaza, Moazzam Malik, CEO Save the Children UK said:
“Today’s confirmation of famine in Gaza by the IPC is the official stamp on a tragedy we have been warning about for months. The UK - and Israel's other allies - cannot say they didn’t know this would happen. We have all watched this disaster play out on our screens. The UK public is rightly outraged.
This is a man-made famine that was entirely preventable. All evidence points to one conclusion - starvation is being used as a weapon of war, and humanitarian aid has been used as an instrument of occupation.
The UK Government cannot turn away. To refuse to act is to be complicit.
This siege and the weaponisation of aid must end. Essential supplies must flow without hinderance on political grounds. The UK must suspend all arms transfers to Israel, including components for F-35 fighter jets used to rain terror on civilians. The UK must act against those that are responsible for these atrocities."
- According to the IPC, through June 2026, at least 132,000 children under the age of five are at risk of death from acute malnutrition. This number has doubled compared to the IPC estimates reported in May 2025.
- In the first two weeks of August, 61% of pregnant women and new mothers screened at Save the Children’s clinics have been found to be malnourished, nearly seven times higher than the rate in the first two weeks of March (9%), before aid and goods were almost completely cut off.
Doctors in Save the Children health clinics are seeing around 100 patients a day, double the number of their recommended caseload.
Save the Children has been unable to get any of its own aid into Gaza since 2 March and has 45 trucks-worth of aid including medicines, shelter items and hygiene kits waiting in warehouses.
Save the Children is responding to the famine crisis in Gaza in our two primary healthcare clinics in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah by providing nutrition screening and treatment to children under 5, pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. Our treatment package includes providing medical interventions, supplements and high calorie biscuits and pastes to malnourished children and mothers. Since the start of the war, our two clinics have helped over 113,000 people, including over 42,000 children.
We have content available from a mother and child in one of our health clinics in Gaza and VLOG from our Head of Media Dan Stewart.