World Food Programme Announces Halving of Aid in the West Bank

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday that funding cuts are forcing it to halve the number of beneficiaries receiving aid in the occupied West Bank, cautioning of dire consequences.

Sean Hughes, the WFP representative in the Palestinian territories, told media outlets in Geneva via a link from London that the UN agency “is being forced to reduce the number of people it assists in the West Bank by half, from 400,000 to 200,000, at a time when food needs in the West Bank have more than doubled compared to two years ago.”

Hughes noted that the West Bank had not previously suffered from food insecurity, but since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, “the escalation of settler violence, increasing and prolonged Israeli military operations, and strict movement restrictions, along with widespread demolitions and displacements in the West Bank, have undermined Palestinian livelihoods and exacerbated food insecurity.”

According to the WFP’s latest quarterly analysis, 76 percent of households in the West Bank experienced a significant decline in income, prompting many to sell their assets and reduce the quantity and quality of their meals in order to survive.

The agency also pointed out that the analysis revealed one-third of families can no longer afford the cost of a diet with high nutritional value due to the rapid deterioration of economic conditions, warning that residents of rural areas and the southern governorates of the West Bank are the most affected.

Hughes stated that “families that used to live comfortably and earn their livelihood from their land are now unable to secure enough food.”

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.