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

The World Food Programme (WFP) is significantly reducing its food aid in the occupied West Bank and Gaza due to a funding shortfall. This reduction, effective this month, will halve assistance for 400,000 people in the West Bank to 200,000. The WFP is also cutting cash assistance to approximately 75,000 families in Gaza, and the cash value of aid for 375,000 people there has already been reduced by 40 percent. International aid organizations are struggling financially as the United States has led a sharp cut in Western donations. The WFP is prioritizing the most vulnerable recipients amidst widespread needs, noting that 900,000 people are food insecure in the West Bank and 1.5 million are supported in Gaza, where conditions remain at crisis levels despite some improvement since famine was declared last year.

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) is halving food assistance in the West Bank, reducing aid from 400,000 to 200,000 people due to severe funding shortages. The agency also warned of potential further cuts in Gaza, where it supports 1.5 million people, having already reduced cash assistance by 40% for 375,000 people in July. WFP urgently needs $386 million over the next six months to assist an estimated 2 million food-insecure individuals in both Gaza and the West Bank. Increased violence, displacement, and economic deterioration have worsened food insecurity in the West Bank, while conditions in Gaza remain at crisis levels despite some improvement since last year's famine declaration.