Fewer recipients and smaller packages
The World Food Programme is cutting monthly assistance in Gaza because of a funding shortage, removing about 500,000 people from regular food or cash support while also reducing what remaining recipients receive. The UN agency said 1.1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza's population, would continue to receive assistance each month under the reduced program.
The reductions affect both food parcels and cash transfers. Families in the food program will receive one parcel instead of two and a smaller allocation of wheat flour. About 75,000 families receiving cash assistance will see monthly payments reduced from 1,250 shekels to 750 shekels, approximately $400 to $240 at the conversion reported by the agency.
WFP country director Shaun Hughes said the immediate constraint was financing rather than an inability to move supplies through humanitarian channels. The agency estimates that 1.4 million people in Gaza remain acutely food insecure and require humanitarian support to survive. It says conditions have not improved enough to justify withdrawing assistance on the basis of reduced need.
The agency had recently been reaching between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people a month. It expanded deliveries after a US-brokered ceasefire took effect a year earlier, although Israeli strikes have continued. Nearly all of Gaza's residents have been displaced at least once, leaving many households without reliable work, income or housing.
A wider financing squeeze
The WFP says it needs about $450 million for its Gaza and West Bank work over the next six months. Its 2026 funding for the Palestinian territories is around half the usual level, following reductions in government contributions to UN agencies and bilateral aid. The organization is financed by governments and private donors rather than through a fixed assessed budget.
The Gaza cut follows a September reduction in the West Bank, where the number of recipients was halved from 400,000 to 200,000. The cumulative changes show how falling contributions are forcing the agency to ration support across the Palestinian territories even while humanitarian needs remain high.
Residents interviewed in Gaza said assistance covered only part of their needs but had become essential amid high food prices and scarce employment. Parents described uncertainty about feeding children after community kitchens stopped operating and household aid was reduced.
Aid access remains politically contested. Israel permits more goods to enter under the ceasefire arrangements but continues to reject shipments it classifies as potentially useful for military purposes. The WFP's announcement separates that access dispute from the present cuts: the agency says it could sustain and expand deliveries if it had the money. Without additional donor commitments, its remaining resources will be spread among fewer people and provide less support to each household.
