WFP to cut food aid to half a million in Gaza as funding runs out

The World Food Programme, one of the main suppliers of food aid to the Gaza Strip, says it is being forced to “drastically reduce lifesaving assistance” to the territory because of funding shortages.

The UN agency said the number of people it helps will fall by about a third — from 1.6 million to 1.1 million — just as winter approaches and many families in Gaza are still struggling to feed themselves.

One of the sharpest cuts will be to community kitchens: the number of hot meals served each day will drop from 250,000 to 150,000. Families in hard-to-reach areas, such as those near the so-called Yellow Line that demarcates Israel’s area of military control, will receive a meal every other day instead of daily.

Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.1 million people remain displaced, and about two-thirds rely on food aid to survive.

“It’s a disaster! What will we do with these reduced rations? How will we provide for the little ones?” said Mervat al-Satari, a displaced mother-of-five in a camp in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. “Sometimes we wait for these meals to eat.”

Sawsan Bahloul, also from al-Mawasi and a mother of three, said: “This will affect us a lot. The daily aid was somehow ticking the box but now it will be every two days.”

Shaun Hughes, the WFP’s director for Palestine, was clear the cuts were about money: “not because the needs are coming down, or because we don’t have access — we do.” He told AFP on Monday: “As of this month, we’re now cutting half a million people from the number of people that we’re assisting.”