WFP cuts food aid to 500,000 people in Gaza amid funding shortage

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) announced on Monday that funding shortages had forced it to cut food assistance to around 500,000 people in the Gaza Strip, reducing its monthly beneficiaries from 1.6 million to 1.1 million.

In a press statement, the agency warned that recent improvements in food security remained fragile as winter approaches and declining humanitarian funding threatens to reverse the gains. Despite the cuts, the WFP will continue supporting bakeries that supply about one-third of Gaza’s bread needs, providing nutrition assistance to 300,000 women and children, and distributing school snacks to 200,000 children.

According to the latest food security assessment cited by the WFP, 67 percent of Gaza’s population, are experiencing acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse, classified as Phase 3 or above under the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.