UN set to suspend food aid for Gaza, occupied West Bank

The World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations says it will suspend food aid to a large number of impoverished Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank due to funding shortages.

Samer Abdeljaber, the WFP's senior official for Palestinian territories said on Sunday that the agency was set to suspend food aid to over 200,000 Palestinians from next month due to a "severe" shortage of funds. 

"In light of the severe funding shortages, WFP is forced to make painful choices to stretch the limited resources," Abdeljaber said. "WFP would have to start suspending assistance to over 200,000 people, which is 60 percent of its current caseload, from June."

"WFP understands the implications of this unavoidable and hard decision on hundreds of thousands of people who also depend on food assistance for their most basic needs," stated Abdeljaber.

The UN agency will continue its aid to 140,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank, said Abdeljaber, who added the suspension decision was taken to save those who are at the highest risk of not being able to afford food. 

Unless funding is received, WFP will be forced to suspend food and cash assistance entirely by August, he said.

Chanting "No to Hunger," dozens of Palestinians staged a protest outside the WFP offices in the besieged Gaza City to protest the decision. 

The United Nations agency offers impoverished Palestinians both monthly vouchers with a value of $10.30 per person and food baskets. Both programs will be affected.

"The voucher is life, the message they sent us equals death since there is no other source of income," said Faraj Al-Masri, a father of two, whose family gets vouchers worth $41.20 per month.

In Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, Jamalat El-Dabour said they will "starve to death" as her husband was sick and unemployed. 

The most impacted families are in Gaza, where food insecurity and poverty are the highest, and in the West Bank.

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli blockade since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.

Israel has launched several military offensives on the besieged territory since 2008, making the situation even worse.

ME