UN slashes food aid to Palestinians as funding crisis deepens

The United Nations World Food Programme has drastically cut food assistance to Palestinians, reducing aid recipients from 2 million to 1.1 million people across Gaza and the West Bank this month due to insufficient funding.

Carl Skau, acting head of the WFP, made an urgent appeal to the international community on Monday for USD 450 million to reverse the cuts and resume provision of hot meals and food parcels in both territories. In Gaza alone, assistance was reduced from 1.6 million beneficiaries to 1.1 million, while West Bank aid fell from 400,000 to 200,000 people.

Skau, who recently visited both territories, described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as "absolutely brutal" and stressed the dangers faced by UN personnel. He reported that UN teams have documented approximately 50 attacks daily over the past week in the region.

Despite the current crisis, Skau noted that the October ceasefire between Israel and Hamas had enabled the agency to make progress in preventing famine conditions. The funding shortfall now threatens to unwind those gains and worsen food insecurity for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Palestinians.