Funding shortages force WFP aid cuts for 700,000 Palestinians

The UN World Food Programme says funding shortages have forced it to cut the number of Palestinians receiving its food assistance by 700,000 across Gaza and the West Bank. It is seeking $450 million (£338 million) to maintain critical Palestinian operations over the next six months. Sourcing and shipping the ingredients for ration boxes can take about three months. WFP says funding for its Palestine operation in 2026 was less than half that received in previous years. The agency urgently requires $450 million (£336 million) to maintain critical operations in Gaza and the West Bank from October 2026 to March 2027.

The cuts come as WFP estimates that 1.4 million people in Gaza—67% of the population—face "acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse". Around 200,000 need immediate food aid to prevent deaths from hunger, the agency says. In Gaza, the reductions affect ration boxes, community-kitchen meals and cash transfers.

In Gaza, monthly assistance has fallen from about 1.6 million people to 1.1 million, with the reduction taking effect from October, according to the Guardian. In the West Bank, where WFP announced a 50% cut in recipients in September, the agency has reduced assistance from 400,000 people to 200,000.

The Guardian reports that humanitarian organisations are struggling for funding following reductions to USAID and cuts in aid spending by other donor governments.

Cuts to meals and rations

WFP will reduce the number of people receiving flour bags and ration boxes in Gaza from 1.1 million to 600,000 each month. Hot meals supplied through community kitchens have fallen from 250,000 to 150,000 a day, WFP says. Cash transfers for around 500,000 people have already been reduced since July. Families still receiving food assistance will now get one food parcel instead of two and a smaller bag of wheat flour, WFP says.

“Sometimes we try to save part of a meal for breakfast because we do not know whether we will have anything to eat the following day”

Carl Skau, WFP's acting head, said the agency would prioritise sick people, mothers and children at risk of malnutrition, and those closest to the Yellow Line. Families in hard-to-reach areas near the line will receive meals every other day rather than daily, WFP says.

A recent UNICEF survey found that one in eight children in Gaza are chronically malnourished or stunted. WFP says it can continue nutritional assistance for about 300,000 women and children, alongside support for bakeries that provide one-third of Gaza's bread needs.

Nearly all of Gaza's 2.1 million residents remain displaced, and two-thirds rely on food aid to survive, the BBC reports. It also reports that more than 80% of Gaza's population is unemployed. The Israeli military halted commercial-goods shipments, including food, into Gaza the previous week, according to The Seattle Times.

Shaun Hughes warned, in comments reported by the BBC and the Guardian, that the reductions would worsen hunger and compound families' hardship, particularly during winter. Even limited cuts, he said, may return families with no other food source or income to dangerous levels of malnutrition.

West Bank incomes under pressure

In the West Bank, WFP says food insecurity has more than doubled over three years, with almost a million Palestinians now needing food assistance. Its quarterly analysis found that 76% of Palestinian households there had experienced a significant income decline, while one-third could not afford a healthy diet.

WFP attributes worsening livelihoods, hunger and family crises in the territory to increased Israeli settler violence and forced displacement. Skau said the number of settler attacks during the first two weeks of the harvest had already exceeded the total for the whole of the previous year.

Economist and activist Ubai Aboudi said Israel had withheld the customs revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority since May 2025, leaving the authority unable to pay public-sector salaries, Al Jazeera reported.

WFP says it lacks the resources to help every West Bank family needing assistance. It describes the cut as a broad decision affecting current beneficiaries, not a finding that individuals whose aid stops are ineligible.