More than two million Palestinians in Gaza face a famine crisis, with a daily increase in deaths from malnutrition, the United Nations denounced.

The The Gaza Humanitarian Fund (GHF), a group backed by Israel and the United States, has been operating in the Strip since late May and says it has distributed 91 million meals, mostly through food boxes.

While the BBC has not been able to see these boxes directly since Israel barred international journalists from entering the Palestinian territory, BBC Verify has examined photos and other information shared by the GFF and spoken to aid experts, who have expressed concern about their nutritional value.

What's in the boxes?

Videos of Palestinians showing off the boxes' contents have circulated on social media and the internet, but the GFF has only shared images this week.

Two photographs posted on X show mostly dried foods that require water and fuel to cook, such as pasta, chickpeas, lentils, and wheat flour.

They also show that the boxes include cooking oil, salt, and tahini (sesame paste).

The FHG noted that these boxes also contain ready-to-eat foods such as halva bars, a popular snack made with tahini and sugar.

The organization provided a table with what it describes as a "reference list" of the items in each box, with a breakdown of their calories.

An average box contains 42,500 calories, and according to the table, each one can feed 5.5 people for 3.5 days.

Occasionally, the contents include substitute products such as tea, cookies, and chocolate, and Also potatoes and onions, but these are not included in the nutritional figures, according to the FHG.

Serious weaknesses

A professor of international cooperation development at the London School of Economics analyzed the list provided by the FHG to BBC Verify and said that while it may provide the calories needed to survive, it had serious weaknesses.

“In essence, this basket provides a full stomach, but an empty diet,” said Professor Stuart Gordon.

“The biggest flaw is what’s missing… This is, in essence, a ‘first aid’ food basket, designed to stop the devastating effect of acute hunger,” he said.

However, he warned that “a diet like this for weeks on end would lead to ‘hidden hunger’, increasing the risk of diseases such as anemia and scurvy.”

For his part, Dr. Andrew Seal, associate professor of international nutrition at University College London, explained that the food boxes were deficient in calcium, iron, zinc, and vitamins C, D, B12, and K.

He also added that the boxes lacked suitable food for young children.

“Prolonged consumption of these foods, even if provided in adequate quantities, would lead to various deficiencies and serious health problems,” he said.

Seal added that unlike the FHG, agencies like the UN usually distribute food in bulk and supplement it with specific nutrition for vulnerable groups.

The World Food Programme (WFP) stated that it also aims to deliver supplies emergency food for young children and pregnant women.

The FHG did not respond to BBC Verify's questions about the advice it received on the nutritional content of its aid boxes or whether it planned to address concerns raised by experts.

Those who manage to get a box still need water and fuel to cook the dry food. However, Gaza suffers from a severe water crisis and acute fuel shortages.

The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned this week that the water crisis in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating. It also warned that families have had to resort to unsafe and unhealthy cooking methods, such as using discarded materials.

The WFP said in May that supplies of cooking gas had been disrupted and were being sold on the black market at prices up to 4,000 percent higher than pre-conflict levels.