Food aid cutback in the occupied West Bank as health fears grow in Gaza
Half a Million West Bank Families Face Food Shortage as Aid Budgets Collapse
Qinilo.com – The World Food Programme has announced it must halve its food-assistance operations in the occupied West Bank, a decision that will strip roughly 200,000 residents of the support they depend on for daily survival. The cut comes at a moment when the number of people unable to reliably feed themselves has more than doubled in just two years, transforming a territory that was once considered relatively stable into one where hunger is now the norm for over a quarter of the population.
Shaun Hughes, WFP's country director for Palestine, delivered the announcement to journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, explaining that the programme's funding pool has been exhausted. He described a convergence of pressures — intensified settler violence, expanding military operations, sweeping movement restrictions, home demolitions, and mass displacement — that together have dismantled the economic foundations on which Palestinian families relied.
"We're running out of funding, and that means that from today, 200,000 people will lose access to critical assistance."
A Territory Transformed in Two Years
Two years ago, only about 11 per cent of West Bank residents were classified as food insecure. Today that figure stands at nearly one million people — more than a quarter of the territory's population. Hughes noted that unemployment has more than doubled in the same period, and that over a third of residents now struggle to cover basic necessities. Markets may still stock shelves, he acknowledged, but the purchasing power to buy from them has largely evaporated.
"Food may be available in the markets, but people simply cannot afford it."
During recent field visits, Hughes witnessed families who had worked the land for generations now displaced from their homes, their livelihoods obliterated. He described a population caught in what he called a "chokehold" — unable to travel freely to reach farmland or employment, and therefore unable to generate the income needed to buy food.
The cash transfers WFP had been providing — approximately 50 Israeli shekels per person per month, equivalent to less than $20 — had become, in his words, a "real lifeline" for many households. Those payments will now be suspended due to the funding shortfall.
Gaza: Hunger at Emergency Levels
The situation in the Gaza Strip is even more acute. WFP was already forced to scale back its cash-assistance programme to 75,000 families in July. Hughes cautioned that modest improvements in food-security indicators reported the previous month should not be mistaken for recovery: two-thirds of Gaza's population still face hunger at critical or emergency levels.
"If humanitarian food aid does not continue, up to 90 per cent of the population will face high levels of acute food insecurity by the end of this year."
To prevent any further reductions across both territories over the coming six months, WFP requires $386 million. Hughes urged sustained international financial commitment, warning that as competing global crises multiply and domestic fiscal priorities tighten, there is a genuine risk that global attention will drift away from Palestine even as the needs on the ground remain unchanged.
"There is a real danger that the world's attention moves on from Palestine, but the needs of Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, have not moved on."
Water and Disease: A Second Crisis in Gaza
Compounding the food emergency, the World Health Organization's representative in Occupied Palestinian Territory, Dr. Renee van de Werdt, raised alarm over the deteriorating water and sanitation situation inside the Strip. Speaking from Gaza City on Monday — where a nearby airstrike had killed several people despite a ceasefire agreed the previous October — she described her sixth visit to the territory and what she found: endless piles of rubble, overcrowded and flimsy temporary shelters, and a water system that remains dependent on truck deliveries more than three years after the conflict began.
"It is really unacceptable to see in Gaza, almost three years in, that these trucks are still the lifeline most Gazans depend on."
Dr. van de Werdt flagged a near-tripling of microbiological contamination in water supplies since January, a trend she attributed in part to the extremely limited laboratory testing capacity available inside the Strip. The WHO team can detect and track only essential microbiological contaminants; other pollutants likely present in both water and the surrounding environment remain unmeasured.
The public-health consequences are already visible. Acute watery diarrhoea cases have nearly doubled from approximately 30,000 recorded in March to more than 58,000 in August. With winter approaching, sewage is expected to flow openly through densely populated neighbourhoods, emitting odours and increasing contamination risk further. Without sustained investment in water infrastructure and expanded laboratory surveillance, the diarrhoeal disease burden is projected to climb sharply in the months ahead.
For the roughly two million people across the West Bank and Gaza who depend on international humanitarian assistance for basic nutrition and safe water, the next six months will be decisive. The funding gap identified by WFP and the infrastructure deficits documented by WHO together outline a scenario in which preventable suffering escalates rapidly unless donor commitments are renewed at scale.
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