Funding shortages force World Food Programme to cut Gaza aid, recipients falling from 1.6m to 1.1m
One of the main suppliers of food aid to the Gaza Strip, the World Food Programme (WFP), says it is being forced to 'drastically reduce lifesaving assistance' to the Palestinian territory due to funding shortages. The cuts will hit as winter approaches and at a time when many families in Gaza are still struggling to feed themselves.
Overall, the number of people helped by the UN agency will drop by about a third — from 1.6 million to 1.1 million. Nearly all of Gaza's 2.1 million population remains displaced, and two-thirds rely on food aid to survive.
One effect is that the number of hot meals currently provided by community kitchens will be cut from 250,000 to 150,000 each day.
Families living in hard-to-reach areas, for example near the so-called Yellow Line, which demarcates Israel's area of military control, will receive a meal every other day instead of daily.
Mervat al-Satari, a displaced Palestinian mother-of-five at a camp in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, called the cuts a 'disaster'. 'What will we do with these reduced rations? How will we provide for the little ones?' she said. '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.' She added that the portions given by the community kitchen — usually pasta or lentils with occasional potatoes and aubergines — were already too small to feed her family.
The Palestine director for the WFP, Shaun Hughes, is clear that the cuts are being made because of finances, and 'not because the needs are coming down, or because we don't have access — we do.'
Already, since July, there have been reductions in cash transfers provided to some half a million people, meaning they have less money to buy food in local markets. The number of Gazans given bags of flour and ration boxes by the WFP will now fall from 1.1 million to 600,000 each month.
The WFP received less than half as much funding for its Palestinian operations in 2026 as in previous years. The agency says it urgently needs $450m (£338m) to maintain 'critical' operations over the next six months.
Despite a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel agreed a year ago, humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire. There has been no reconstruction and little recovery, with Israel tightly controlling the entry of goods through crossings. While food markets are now well stocked, few can afford to buy from them, as more than 80% of people in Gaza are unemployed.
Dalal al-Dahdouh, who is living in the ruins of her home in Gaza City with her family of eight, said: 'The flour isn't enough and the food boxes aren't enough either.' She fears the new cuts will have a 'major impact', contrasting the current situation with life before the war, when her family had its own home, fresh vegetables and its own land. 'Now we live entirely on aid, including WFP vouchers,' she said.
With no cooking gas available, many families send their children into the street to find plastic and cardboard to burn as fuel to make bread or heat food. Hughes said cuts to food assistance will compound the hardship families have faced for three years. For now, the agency can continue supporting bakeries that provide one-third of Gaza's bread needs and nutritional assistance to about 300,000 women and children. With winter ahead, the deepest fear is that unless the $450m is raised, the cuts will deepen further.
