World Food Programme to cut aid to half a million people in Gaza amid funding shortfall

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has announced it must reduce aid to around half a million people in Gaza due to a funding shortfall. This comes as winter approaches and recent improvements in food security remain fragile. The cuts are solely due to reduced funding, not a decrease in needs, according to Carl Skau, acting executive director of WFP.

Skau described the situation as "absolutely brutal," with people living in makeshift shelters or destroyed homes, relying on water trucks for clean water and facing a lack of jobs. Over the past three years, WFP has aided up to 90% of families in Gaza, reaching about 1.6 million people monthly since the October 2025 ceasefire. However, funding cuts will now leave hundreds of thousands without assistance.

The WFP prioritises the sick, children at risk of malnutrition, and those whose safety is at risk. A sense of hopelessness has emerged, with daily air strikes and attacks often surpassing 50 in recent days. In the West Bank, escalating Israeli settler violence, coupled with planned settlement expansion, has turned the annual olive harvest into a flashpoint for clashes between settlers and Palestinian farmers.

The WFP chief highlighted that settler attacks in the past two weeks have surpassed last year's total, exacerbating the hunger crisis. Almost a million Palestinians now require food assistance, but WFP is also forced to cut back.