One in 10 children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza since 2024 has been malnourished, the agency said on Tuesday, as European Union foreign ministers pressed Israel for an update on an agreement to boost aid into the enclave through UN channels.

“Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March,” UNRWA’s director of communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.

Since January 2024, UNRWA said it had screened more than 240,000 boys and girls under the age of 5 in its clinics, adding that before the war, acute malnutrition was rarely seen in the Gaza Strip.

“One nurse that we spoke to told us that in the past, he only saw these cases of malnutrition in textbooks and documentaries,” Touma said. “Medicine, nutrition supplies, hygiene material, fuel are all rapidly running out.”

Israel has accused UNRWA of providing cover for Hamas terrorists and, earlier this year, banned the agency from operating on Israeli soil or contacting officials.

The announcement came after UNICEF said Monday that last month, more than 5,800 children were diagnosed with malnutrition in Gaza, including more than 1,000 children with severe, acute malnutrition. It said it was an increase for the fourth month in a row.

Starting in March, Israel blocked deliveries of food and other crucial supplies into Gaza for more than two months, leading to warnings of famine across the territory, devastated by Israeli bombings since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war.

Israel lifted the blockade at the end of May amid a renewed offensive in the Strip, whose declared purpose is to take over 75 percent of the Strip in order to defeat Hamas and secure the release of the hostages seized by the terror group on October 7.

As part of the resumption of aid, and in an effort to circumvent Hamas, the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has opened four distribution sites in south and central Gaza.

The UN human-rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the GHF and near convoys run by other relief groups, including the United Nations.

The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

“The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva.

The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the UN figures.

GHF has faced harsh criticism from the UN and aid organizations, which charge that it fails to meet the needs of Gaza’s population. Gazans have reported near-daily incidents in which groups trying to reach GHF facilities are shot at by Israeli forces, leading to mass casualties.

Israel, which accuses Hamas of hoarding aid, has also accused the terror group of attacking Gazan aid seekers near GHF sites and falsifying death tolls. However, Israel has also acknowledged that “several” Palestinian civilians have been killed near the aid distribution sites.

Meanwhile, the European Union has been seeking updates from Israel on the implementation of a new deal to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief.

Foreign ministers from the EU’s 27 member nations are meeting in Brussels following the conclusion of a new aid deal for Gaza largely forged by Kallas and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar.

“We have reached a common understanding with Israel to really improve the situation on the ground, but it’s not about the paper, but actually implementation of the paper,” Kallas said Tuesday before the meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.

“As long as it hasn’t really improved, then we haven’t all done enough,” she said, calling for a ceasefire.

Details of the deal remain unclear, but EU officials have rejected any cooperation with the GHF over ethical and safety concerns.