Funding shortages force World Food Programme to cut aid to Gaza

One of the main suppliers of food aid to the Gaza Strip, the World Food Programme (WFP), says that it is being forced to "drastically reduce lifesaving assistance" to the Palestinian territory due to funding shortages.

Overall, the number of people helped by the UN agency will drop by about a third - from 1.6 million to 1.1 million.

The cuts will hit as winter approaches and at a time when many families in Gaza are still struggling to feed themselves.

One effect is that the number of hot meals that are currently being provided by community kitchens will be cut from 250,000 to 150,000 each day.

Families living in hard-to-reach areas, for example near the so-called Yellow Line, which demarcates Israel's area of military control, will receive a meal every other day instead of daily.

Nearly all of Gaza's 2.1 million population remains displaced and two-thirds rely on food aid to survive.

"It's a disaster! What will we do with these reduced rations? How will we provide for the little ones?" said Mervat al-Satari, a displaced Palestinian mother-of-five at a camp in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis after being told of the WFP's news. "Sometimes we wait for these meals to eat."

"This will affect us a lot. The daily aid was somehow ticking the box but now it will be every two days," said Sawsan Bahloul, who is also from al-Mawasi and is a mother of three. She added that the portions given by the community kitchen - usually pasta or lentils with occasional potatoes and aubergines - were already too small to feed her family.

The Palestine director for the WFP, Shaun Hughes, is clear that the cuts are being made because of finances, and "not because the needs are coming down, or because we don't have access - we do."

Already, since July, there have been reductions in cash transfers provided to some half a million people, meaning they have less money to buy food in local markets. The number of Gazans given bags of flour and ration boxes by the WFP will now fall from 1.1 million to 600,000 each month.

The WFP received less than half as much funding for its Palestinian operations in 2026 as in previous years. The agency says it urgently needs $450m (£338m) to maintain "critical" operations over the next six months.

Despite a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that was agreed a year ago, violence has continued, including almost daily Israeli strikes, and humanitarian conditions in Gaza remain dire.

There has been no reconstruction and little recovery, with Israel tightly controlling the entry of goods through crossings. While food markets are now well stocked, few can afford to buy from them. More than 80% of people in Gaza are unemployed so most of the population relies on aid.

Families currently receiving the WFP food handouts complained to the BBC that already these were insufficient and gave them little diversity in their diets.

"The flour isn't enough and the food boxes aren't enough either," said Dalal al-Dahdouh, who is living in the ruins of her home in Gaza City with her family of eight. She fears the new cuts will have "a major impact".

The mother draws a contrast between the current desperate situation and life before the war. "In the past, thank God, we had our own home and a wonderful life. We had fresh vegetables, proper sanitation facilities and our own land," she said. "Now we live entirely on aid, including WFP vouchers."

There is no cooking gas available in Gaza because the Israeli government considers it a "dual use" item that could be used by Hamas for military purposes. Wood is expensive, so many families send their children into the street to find plastic and cardboard to burn as fuel to make bread or heat food.

"It's still a very concerning humanitarian situation, people living in brutal conditions, most people still without a proper home, living in tents, poor access to water and sanitation and healthcare," Hughes of the WFP told the BBC. "Cuts to food assistance are going to compound that hardship that families have been facing for three years now."

Humanitarian workers say that despite a modest improvement in Gaza compared to a year ago, acute food insecurity and the risk of famine returning continue to loom over the territory.

In July, the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) - the world's foremost experts on food security - reported that two-thirds of the population - 1.4 million people - were "expected to face crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity in July-December 2026".