World Food Programme cuts Gaza aid as funding runs out

The World Food Programme announced on Monday that it will end monthly food and cash assistance to approximately 500,000 people in Gaza because of a lack of funding. The cuts will reduce the number of aid recipients from 1.6 million to 1.1 million people, who will receive smaller amounts of support each month.

Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told AFP that the agency's assistance had been crucial in addressing the food crisis in Gaza last year. He emphasised that conditions have not improved enough to justify reducing support and that the fundamental problem is insufficient funding rather than the ability to distribute aid. "This has been a lifeline. But now, rather than being able to sustain and scale up that assistance, we're actually having to reduce it," Hughes said.

According to the WFP's latest assessments, approximately 1.4 million people—roughly two-thirds of Gaza's population—remain acutely food insecure and depend on humanitarian assistance to survive. The situation is causing alarm among residents. Samaher al-Najjar, a 45-year-old mother from Khan Yunis who lives in a tent, explained that her family relies on aid for part of their food because she has no money to purchase what they need.

These cuts demonstrate how fragile humanitarian operations are in Gaza, where nearly the entire population has been displaced at least once during the conflict. At the same time, international donors face competing demands with limited resources available.