McCain warns Gaza hunger crisis could cost a generation of children

The Gaza hunger emergency is now being measured not only in deaths and empty plates, but in whether children can recover at all. Cindy McCain, the executive director of the U.N. World Food Programme, warned on CBS News’ Face the Nation that as the crisis in the Middle East deepens, “we’re looking at possibly losing a generation of children.”

Her warning lands against a stark accounting from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. In its May 12, 2025 snapshot, the entire Gaza Strip was classified in Emergency, or IPC Phase 4, while 470,000 people, about 22% of the population, were in Catastrophe, IPC Phase 5. More than 1 million others were in Emergency, and the rest were in Crisis. The same assessment projected that 71,000 children and more than 17,000 mothers would need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition.

The World Food Programme said hunger and malnutrition worsened sharply after all aid was blocked from entering Gaza on March 2, 2025, reversing gains seen during an earlier ceasefire. UNICEF said the vast majority of children in Gaza were facing extreme food deprivation, along with severe shortages of clean water, sanitation and health services. Those conditions, aid officials have warned, do not end when the shelling does. Repeated displacement, overcrowded shelters and damaged infrastructure in places including North Gaza, Gaza Governorate, Rafah Governorate, Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah have been undermining children’s health, learning and safety while putting disease outbreaks and mental health trauma within easy reach.

The World Health Organization said the crisis remained preventable, but was worsening because of deliberate blocking and delays of large-scale aid. By July 27, 2025, WHO reported 74 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza that year, including 24 children under five. In an update cited by health agencies, 63 of those deaths occurred in July alone.

McCain has pressed the same case before. On November 5, 2023, she urged safe, expanded humanitarian access through the Rafah crossing, and later said famine warnings in Gaza had been clear for months. For aid agencies, the danger is no longer limited to the immediate collapse of food systems. Hunger, interrupted schooling and prolonged displacement are now shaping the prospects of an entire cohort of children, even if the fighting eases.