UN slashes food aid for occupied West Bank and Gaza amid funding shortfall

International aid organisations are struggling for money as the United States has led a sharp cut in Western donations.The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that it is being forced to halve the scope of its assistance in the occupied West Bank due to funding issues.The United Nations agency said on Tuesday that critical financing constraints mean it must pull back on assistance, reducing its support for 400,000 people to 200,000. International aid organisations across the globe have been struggling for money as the United States has led a sharp cut in support, with other Western nations also reducing donations.Starting this month, food assistance provided to families in the West Bank in the form of cash, vouchers, food, livelihood programmes and nutritional services will be cut, the WFP said in a statement. A lack of funding is also affecting the WFP’s operations in Gaza, it added.The UN agency estimates that 900,000 people are food insecure in the West Bank. Its Country Director for Palestine, Shaun Hughes, said the WFP is “prioritising the most vulnerable while cutting assistance to others despite widespread needs”.In Gaza, the WFP supports 1.5 million people, “including one million who receive monthly food assistance,” it noted.The agency’s spokesperson for the Palestinian territories, Claire Nevill, told The Associated Press that the agency has started reducing its cash assistance to around 75,000 families in Gaza.The WFP said the cash value of its assistance for 375,000 people in the Palestinian enclave had been reduced by 40 percent in July.The world’s leading authority on food insecurity, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, said in July the situation in Gaza had improved since famine was declared in parts of the Palestinian territory last year, but warned conditions were still at crisis levels.