Funding shortage forces WFP to cut monthly aid to 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza

The World Food Program (WFP) announced Monday that, due to a lack of funding, it will have to scale back its humanitarian operations in Gaza, reducing by 500,000 the number of people aided each month, while urging the world not to “look away” from the territory devastated by war.

Since the start of the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, launched in response to the attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, “families ... are living in extremely difficult humanitarian conditions,” Shaun Hughes, WFP director in the Palestinian territories, told AFP.

Around 1.4 million people, out of 2.1 million inhabitants, “are still experiencing acute food insecurity and need humanitarian aid to survive,” especially with winter approaching, he stressed from the United Nations organization’s offices in Beit Hanina, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

For Salem Abu Mamar, 29, who lives in Deir al-Balah, in the center of the Gaza Strip, humanitarian aid is a “lifeline.” He fears the reduction “will once again lead to the spread of hunger” and calls on “international organizations not to abandon the population.”

‘Funding shortages’

In August 2025, a U.N. body, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, had declared a state of famine in Gaza, with Israel denouncing “lies.”

The situation then improved thanks to the October cease-fire, which allowed for a greater influx of aid, and the United Nations announced at the end of the year that the territory was no longer considered to be in a state of famine.

Since then, WFP has provided “aid to about 1.6 million people each month in the form of food parcels, wheat flour, bread, hot meals, nutritional support, school snacks, and cash assistance,” the organization explained in a statement.

But “funding shortages” now prevent it from “maintaining this level of support.” WFP says it is thus “forced” to reduce its food aid “by about a third,” lamenting that “half a million people will lose access to essential aid.”

“These are the choices we have to make to ensure our resources ... last as long as possible,” Hughes explained.

Another Gaza resident, Ayman Daghmash, voiced his concern: “We already have a lot of trouble feeding our children.” “If aid stops coming from all sides, how are we going to feed them?” asked the 40-year-old.

Samaher al-Najjar, 45, expresses the same anguish. “The hardest thing for a mother is to see her children hungry and not be able to feed them.”

Rations halved

Along with the reduction in the number of beneficiaries, WFP says it also has to halve the rations distributed. “Families receiving food aid will now receive only one food parcel, as well as a smaller bag of wheat flour,” the agency specified.

The number of hot meals served daily will also drop, from 250,000 to 150,000. Cash transfers, intended to allow residents to buy food in stores, have also been reduced.

Mainly funded by voluntary contributions from U.N. member states’ governments, as well as by private donations, the agency says it is facing a sharp decline in resources. In 2026, it says it received less than half the funding for its operations in the Palestinian territories compared with previous years and estimates it needs “$450 million” (about 400 million euros) to maintain its activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank over the next six months.

At the beginning of September, the agency had already halved the number of beneficiaries of its assistance in the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967, from 400,000 to 200,000 people. In Gaza, Hughes is calling on the international community to continue its support.

Now is “not the time” to “look away,” he said. “On the contrary, now is the time for the entire world to commit to supporting the population during this difficult period.”