The number of malnourished children in the Gaza Strip has risen sharply as a result of Israel's offensive, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A WHO statement on Monday said 90% of children under the age of 2 and 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women "face severe food poverty – meaning they have consumed two or less food groups in the previous day – and the food they do have access to is of the lowest nutritional value."
It continued to say that 95% of households "are limiting meals and portion sizes," and that 64% of households eat only one meal a day.
More than 95% of households said they had restricted the amount of food adults ate in order to ensure small children had food, the WHO said.
Surveys in the north of the region have shown that 15.6% of children there - or one in six children under the age of two - are acutely malnourished.
"Of these, almost 3 per cent suffer from severe wasting, the most life-threatening form of malnutrition, which puts young children at highest risk of medical complications and death unless they receive urgent treatment," the WHO said.
As the data was collected in January, the situation was likely to be even worse at present, according to the organization.
Similar surveys in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip had shown that 5% of children there under the age of two are acutely malnourished. More humanitarian aid is available in the south than in the north.
The figures were "clear evidence" that humanitarian aid was needed, the WHO said.
"The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza," Ted Chaibans, UNICEF deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations, said.
"If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences."