West Bank food aid to be halved by WFP over cuts

The World Food Programme said funding cuts are forcing it to halve the number of people it reaches with food aid in the West Bank, from 400,000 to 200,000 from September.

Shaun Hughes, the UN agency's representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva that the reduction comes as food needs in the West Bank are more than double what they were two years ago.

WFP estimates that 900,000 people in the West Bank are food insecure, about a quarter of the population, compared with 11 percent two years ago, Hughes said.

Hughes said food insecurity had not traditionally been a major problem in the West Bank. But he said that since the Gaza war began in October 2023, intensified settler violence, Israeli military operations, movement restrictions, demolitions and displacement had eroded Palestinian livelihoods and helped increase food insecurity.

WFP said its latest quarterly food security analysis found that 76 percent of households in the West Bank had experienced a significant decline in income. It said many families had been forced to sell assets and reduce the number and quality of meals.

Hughes said more than a third of people in the West Bank were struggling to meet basic needs and afford a nutritious diet, with people in rural areas and southern West Bank governorates most affected.

WFP also said funding shortfalls were affecting its work in Gaza, where it supports 1.5 million people, including one million who receive monthly food assistance. In July, it cut the cash value of assistance for 375,000 people in Gaza by 40 percent and warned that further cuts would be unavoidable without more funding.

The agency said it urgently needs an additional $386 million over the next six months to aid an estimated two million food insecure people across Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, among about three million Palestinians.