Nearly 12,000 children under five in Gaza have acute malnutrition, says WHO

Some 2,500 of those children are suffering from severe malnutrition

A Palestinian child queues for food. File picture: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

Around 12,000 children aged under five in Gaza are suffering from acute malnutrition, and hunger-related deaths are rising, the Director General of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

"In July, nearly 12,000 children under five years were identified as having acute malnutrition in Gaza, the highest monthly figure ever recorded," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at his organisation's headquarters in Geneva.