The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has cut monthly food assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza amid severe funding shortages, with around two-thirds of the population facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse.
The agency said on Monday, 19 October, that it had reduced the number of people receiving monthly food assistance from 1.6 million to 1.1 million.
The decision comes as approximately 1.4 million Palestinians struggle to access sufficient food, including around 200,000 facing emergency levels of food insecurity.
In addition to cutting the number of recipients, the WFP has halved food rations and reduced cash assistance for 75,000 families.
Daily hot meals for people unable to cook have also been cut from 250,000 to 150,000, leaving some families in hard-to-reach areas with just one hot meal every other day.
The WFP warned that the cuts come at a critical time, as Gaza prepares for its fourth winter since the conflict began.
Speaking to Reuters in Gaza, WFP acting Executive Director Carl Skau described the humanitarian situation as dire, despite a ceasefire agreement reached a year ago.
“It's a year into the agreement of this ceasefire. Well, life is still brutal here. There is no proper shelter...There is no basic services. There is no safety, no security,” Skau said.
He warned that winter would bring further hardship for displaced Palestinians, many of whom remain in makeshift shelters with limited access to basic services.
“These cuts are happening just as we are facing the fourth winter. You know, I've been through the winters here, absolutely brutal,” he added.
The WFP says it urgently needs $450 million over the next six months to sustain essential aid operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Skau urged international donors to step up their support, warning that gains in food assistance could be lost without urgent funding.
“We tell the world now is not the time to look away. This is the time to step up to sustain this support, to protect the progress that has been made, but also to push for early recovery,” he said.
The funding crisis comes as efforts to implement last year's U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement make little progress.
The agreement sets out plans for Gaza's eventual reconstruction, alongside provisions for Hamas to disarm and Israeli forces to withdraw from the territory.
Israeli forces, however, continue to control more than 60 per cent of Gaza and conduct almost daily airstrikes.
Hamas remains in control of most areas housing more than two million Palestinians, many of whom live in temporary accommodation with inadequate aid supplies, according to aid agencies.
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office condemned the WFP's decision as “catastrophic”, warning that the cuts could hasten the onset of famine.
It urged international donors to increase funding for humanitarian organisations to prevent conditions from deteriorating further.
For Palestinians already struggling with displacement and food shortages, the latest cuts have deepened fears of further hardship.
“On top of the circumstances and the difficult life, you want to make it even harder on us,” said Sabrine Kuhail, a Palestinian woman living at a displacement site in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
“You made us hungry for three years with war, destruction, siege, and the bloodshed that is not stopping. What do you want from us? Enough, enough, we are tired.”
The reductions add to mounting pressure on aid agencies in Gaza, where mass displacement, damaged infrastructure and continuing insecurity are hampering efforts to deliver food and other essential supplies.
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