WFP stops provision to half a million people in Gaza over lack of funding

The World Food Programme has announced it will stop providing food aid to more than 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza because of a critical funding shortfall, reducing its caseload to about 1.1 million people receiving either food or cash assistance. The cut comes even though the vast majority of Gaza’s population depends on external aid. WFP country director Shaun Hughes said the agency is removing roughly half a million people from assistance this month, and warned that people remain exposed to ongoing airstrikes, mass displacement and a lack of permanent shelter as the humanitarian situation deteriorates.

The suspension is happening against a backdrop of sustained violence and previously declared famine conditions: Gaza’s health ministry figures cited in the report put the cumulative death toll at about 74,480 and wounded at 175,539, with 839 bodies recovered from rubble and thousands more casualties since the so-called ceasefire. The UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification had marked famine last August and only lifted that label in December after a US-brokered pause in hostilities, a pause that has nonetheless been violated repeatedly. The combination of funding gaps, continued attacks and widespread displacement leaves relief efforts stretched and civilians in dire need.