WFP halts aid to half a million people in Gaza over funding shortfall

BEIT HANINA — The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday it is ending monthly assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza because of a funding shortfall, according to Arab News, which cited AFP.

"As of this month, we're now cutting half a million people from the number of people that we're assisting," Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told AFP.

What the cut means

The reduction lowers the number of Palestinians receiving WFP help in Gaza to 1.1 million, according to the report. That is still roughly half of the population of the war-damaged territory, Arab News said. The WFP provides this help either as food or as cash assistance.

Arab News said the agency warned that needs in Gaza remain acute. The report did not say how large the funding gap is. It did not say which donors have reduced contributions, or whether the agency expects to restore the assistance if more money becomes available.

How the news was reported

The news first appeared in the Arabic-language Telegram channels of Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera Mubasher. Both posted a "breaking" alert on Monday citing AFP. The alert said the WFP was stopping aid to half a million people in the Gaza Strip because of a lack of funding. These posts are social media content and are unverified. Their wording matches the account published by Arab News.

The sources use slightly different wording. Arab News describes the WFP as ending monthly assistance to the 500,000 people. The Telegram posts refer to a halt in aid for the same number of people.

What is not confirmed

The sources do not give the following details:

• which areas of Gaza the cut affects;
• how the WFP chose the 500,000 people who will lose assistance;
• whether the people affected were receiving food, cash or both;
• any response from other UN agencies, donor governments or Palestinian authorities.

The WFP has not been quoted directly in the material available beyond Hughes's remarks to AFP. Zenga News has not independently verified the figures.

Background

The WFP is the UN agency that supplies food and cash assistance in emergencies. According to Arab News, it has been giving aid in Gaza to Palestinians in a territory it describes as war-battered. The latest cut leaves the agency serving about half of Gaza's population, down from a larger number before the reduction. The sources do not state the earlier total.