WFP Halves Gaza Rations, Warns 1.4M Face Food Crisis
(MENAFN) The UN World Food Program (WFP) said Monday that a severe funding shortfall has forced it to cut food aid in the Gaza Strip by roughly a third, stripping half a million people of vital support just as winter sets in.
In a statement, WFP said it now reaches 1.1 million vulnerable people in Gaza, down from 1.6 million a month ago. Rations have been cut in half.
Under the new scheme, each assisted family will receive a single food parcel rather than two, plus a smaller bag of wheat flour. Daily hot meals have fallen from 250,000 to 150,000. Families in hard-to-reach areas, including those near the Israeli army-controlled “yellow line,” will get meals every other day instead of every day. WFP has also cut the value of cash assistance paid to 75,000 families.
The scale of need remains stark. By WFP’s estimate, 1.4 million people, or 67% of Gaza’s population, are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse. About 200,000 of them are in emergency conditions and need immediate food aid to avert deaths from hunger.
Only one in five children eats a sufficiently diverse diet, and unemployment tops 80%, leaving many families unable to afford nutritious food.
WFP cautioned that the “modest” gains in food security recorded since the October 2025 ceasefire remain “fragile” and could be erased swiftly if humanitarian assistance is cut further.
The shortfall has also hit the occupied West Bank, where the agency has halved its caseload from 400,000 to 200,000 people.
WFP said it urgently needs $450 million to keep critical operations running across Gaza and the West Bank for the next six months, through March 2027.
In a statement, WFP said it now reaches 1.1 million vulnerable people in Gaza, down from 1.6 million a month ago. Rations have been cut in half.
Under the new scheme, each assisted family will receive a single food parcel rather than two, plus a smaller bag of wheat flour. Daily hot meals have fallen from 250,000 to 150,000. Families in hard-to-reach areas, including those near the Israeli army-controlled “yellow line,” will get meals every other day instead of every day. WFP has also cut the value of cash assistance paid to 75,000 families.
The scale of need remains stark. By WFP’s estimate, 1.4 million people, or 67% of Gaza’s population, are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse. About 200,000 of them are in emergency conditions and need immediate food aid to avert deaths from hunger.
Only one in five children eats a sufficiently diverse diet, and unemployment tops 80%, leaving many families unable to afford nutritious food.
WFP cautioned that the “modest” gains in food security recorded since the October 2025 ceasefire remain “fragile” and could be erased swiftly if humanitarian assistance is cut further.
The shortfall has also hit the occupied West Bank, where the agency has halved its caseload from 400,000 to 200,000 people.
WFP said it urgently needs $450 million to keep critical operations running across Gaza and the West Bank for the next six months, through March 2027.
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