Gaza food aid for 500,000 to end, WFP says

The UN's World Food Programme said Monday it would stop monthly food or cash assistance for 500,000 people in Gaza because of a funding shortfall, while warning that needs remain acute in the Palestinian territory.

With the cutbacks, WFP said 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, about half the population, will still receive food or cash assistance each month, but in reduced amounts.

Shaun Hughes, WFP country director, told AFP that 1.4 million people, or two-thirds of Gaza's population, remain “acutely food insecure” and need humanitarian assistance to survive.

“People are not safe. Airstrikes continue on a daily basis. People continue to be displaced,” Hughes said at the agency's office in east Jerusalem. He said almost everyone in Gaza remained without a permanent home and described humanitarian conditions as “brutal”.

WFP said families receiving food assistance will now get one food parcel instead of two and a smaller bag of wheat flour. The 75,000 families who receive cash assistance will see monthly payments cut from 1,250 to 750 shekels, or from about $400 to $240.

The agency said it needs about $450 million over the next six months for operations in Gaza and the West Bank. It said that in 2026 it had received about half its usual financing for the Palestinian territories.

WFP said it had been reaching between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people in Gaza each month after a US-brokered ceasefire was announced two months after famine conditions were classified in August last year. The famine classification was lifted in December.

The UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said in August last year that Gaza was suffering famine conditions. Israel disputed that finding, calling it a lie.

Israel has kept striking Gaza since the ceasefire, saying it will kill anyone involved in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Israel has allowed more goods into Gaza under the terms of the Trump ceasefire but continues to impose restrictions on shipments it sees as having potential military use, according to the supplied account.

WFP said conditions in Gaza have moderately improved but warned needs could rise again with winter. In September, the agency also cut the number of aid recipients in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from 400,000 to 200,000.