UN food agency halves West Bank assistance as funding runs short
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said Tuesday it is halving food assistance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, reducing the number of people it supports from 400,000 to 200,000 beginning this month. The agency cited severe funding shortages and warned it may be forced to make further cuts in Gaza, where it currently supports 1.5 million people.
The reduction in the West Bank follows a similar move in Gaza, where WFP cut the value of cash assistance by 40% for 375,000 people in July. The agency said additional cuts will be unavoidable unless it secures new funding.
WFP said it urgently needs an additional $386 million over the next six months to assist an estimated 2 million food-insecure people across Gaza and the West Bank.
Widespread food insecurity in the West Bank
In its Tuesday report, WFP estimated that 900,000 people in the West Bank are food insecure. The agency said increased violence, displacement, and economic deterioration have disrupted livelihoods and deepened hunger, with food needs more than doubling since 2023.
"Families who were once thriving and earning a living from their land are now unable to afford enough food," said Shaun Hughes, WFP's country director for Palestine. He added that the agency was being forced to prioritize the most vulnerable households while cutting assistance to others despite widespread needs.
According to WFP's latest food security analysis, 76% of households in the West Bank have experienced a significant decline in income. One-third cannot afford a nutritious diet, and food and fuel prices remain among the highest in the Middle East. The analysis also found that 12% of people had poor food consumption, with rural communities and the southern West Bank identified as the hardest hit.
Gaza's deepening crisis
In Gaza, the situation remains critical. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the world's leading authority on food insecurity, said in July that conditions had improved since famine was declared in parts of the territory last year, but warned they were still at crisis levels.
In July, WFP cautioned that funding shortages and what it described as donor fatigue could force deeper reductions in Gaza, saying it needed more than $420 million to sustain operations in Gaza and the West Bank through the end of the year.
According to recent figures from aid agencies, about one in five families in Gaza ate only one meal a day, while half reported running out of food entirely at least once in the previous month. WFP reported that three-quarters of households in Gaza had difficulty accessing markets in August.
The UN and its partners recently collected hundreds of pallets of food, fuel, and other supplies through the Kerem Shalom crossing and distributed food parcels and wheat flour to more than 600,000 people during the August aid cycle.
Despite a ceasefire signed by Israel and Hamas in October 2025, ongoing hostilities and security restrictions continue to hamper movement and recovery efforts, according to UN agencies. The UN says more than 2 million people have been displaced during the war, and much of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, schools, and water facilities, has been damaged or destroyed.
A plea for international support
Hughes urged the international community to act immediately, noting that WFP should be scaling up assistance rather than cutting it. "We urge the international community to act immediately and step up support for Palestinians," he said.
WFP, along with its partners, has been supporting families in the West Bank through cash and vouchers, food items, livelihood programs, and nutritional services. A lack of funding has now forced the agency to pull back on this vital support.