GENEVA — The United Nations' food agency warned Tuesday that funding cuts were forcing it to slash the number of aid recipients in the West Bank in half, warning of dire consequences.

 

The World Food Programme said that from this month it would be reducing the number of people it reaches with food aid in the Palestinian territory from 400,000 to 200,000.

 

"WFP is being forced to reduce the number of people we assist in the West Bank by half," Shaun Hughes, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva.

 

"This is happening as the food needs in the West Bank are more than double what they were two years ago," he warned, speaking from London.

 

Currently, an estimated 900,000 people are considered food insecure in the West Bank, or around a quarter of the population, according to WFP.

 

That compares to 11 per cent just two years ago, Hughes said.

 

He pointed out that food insecurity had not traditionally been a major problem in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

 

But he argued that since the Gaza war began in October 2023, "intensified settler violence, prolonged and escalating Israeli military operations, severe movement restrictions, demolitions and widespread displacement in the West Bank have eroded Palestinian livelihoods and contributed to increased food insecurity."

 

WFP's latest quarterly food security analysis found that 76 percent of households in the West Bank had experienced a significant decline in income, with many families forced to sell assets and reduce the number and quality of their meals to survive.

 

It shows that "more than a third of people are struggling to meet their basic needs and afford a nutritious diet", Hughes said.

 

The analysis indicated that those living in rural areas and in the southern West Bank governorates were the most affected.

 

"I have witnessed families once thriving and earning a living off their land, now forced from their homes, their livelihoods destroyed," Hughes said.

 

"They now find themselves in a chokehold, unable to move freely to access land or jobs and so unable to afford food for their families."

 

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, among some three million Palestinians. The settlements are illegal under international law.

 

WFP highlighted how funding shortfalls were also affecting its operations in the Gaza Strip, where it supports 1.5 million people, including one million who receive monthly food assistance.

 

In July, the agency was forced to reduce the cash value of its assistance for 375,000 people by 40 per cent, and it warned Tuesday that "further cuts will be unavoidable unless additional funding is secured".

 

Over the next six months, WFP said it urgently needed an additional $386 million to provide aid to an estimated two million food insecure people across Gaza and the West Bank.