World Food Programme to suspend aid to Palestinians due to 'severe' lack of funding

Due to a “severe” lack of funding, the World Food Programme (WFP) will stop providing food assistance to more than 200,000 Palestinians starting next month, the organization’s top representative for the Palestinian territories announced on Sunday. “In light of the severe funding shortages, WFP is forced to make painful choices to stretch the limited resources,” Samer Abdeljaber, the WFP’s country director, told Reuters by phone from Jerusalem. “WFP would have to start suspending assistance to over 200,000 people, which is 60 per cent of its current case load, from June." Families in Gaza and the West Bank, where food insecurity and poverty are at their worst levels, are the most affected. The UN organisation provides food baskets and monthly vouchers with a value of $10.30 per person to Palestinians who are in need. They will both be impacted. According to Palestinian and UN data, Gaza is home to 2.3 million people, of whom 45 per cent are unemployed and 80 per cent rely on foreign aid. Gaza has been ruled by the Islamist Hamas party since 2007. “WFP understands the implications of this unavoidable and hard decision on hundreds of thousands of people who also depend on food assistance for their most basic needs,” said Abdeljaber. Citing security concerns with the enclave’s Hamas rulers, Israel has led a blockade together with Egypt that has put restrictions on the movement of people and goods for years. The UN agency will continue its aid to 140,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank, said Abdeljaber, who added the suspension decision was taken to save those who are at the highest risk of not being able to afford their food. Unless funding is received, WFP will be forced to suspend food and cash assistance entirely by August, he said. Chanting “No to Hunger” dozens of Palestinians staged a protest outside the WFP offices in Gaza City to protest the decision. “The voucher is life, the message they sent us equals death since there is no other source of income,” said Faraj Al-Masri, a father of two, whose family gets vouchers worth $41.20 per month. In Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, Jamalat El-Dabour, whose family receives $164.80 worth of vouchers per month, said they will “starve to death” as her husband was sick and unemployed. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.