Gaza malnutrition to have 'generational' impact on newborns, UN warns

A senior UN official warned Wednesday of "generational" impacts in Gaza from malnutrition among pregnant women and babies, urging a surge of aid to help prevent potential lifelong health issues.

"The sheer extent of the devastation looked like the set of a dystopian film," Andrew Saberton, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told reporters after his visit to the war-torn enclave.

He said that a quarter of Gaza's population is "starving."

"That includes 11,500 pregnant women for whom starvation is particularly catastrophic for both mother and newborn," said Saberton, whose agency leads reproductive and maternal health programs around the world.

As a result, 70 percent of newborns are premature or underweight, compared to 20 percent before Israel's war on Gaza.