WFP warns of deeper cuts in Gaza aid due to donor fatigue

GENEVA, July 24: The UN World Food Programme warned on Friday it would have to make deeper cuts to its aid in Gaza, where it supports 70% of the population, unless additional funding is secured.

The comments come after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global hunger monitor, said more than two-thirds of Gazans could face acute hunger by the end of the year as humanitarian agencies cut aid flows due to funding shortages.

The majority of the population are reliant on aid supplies following two years of war, repeated displacement and severe restrictions imposed by Israel on aid deliveries.

The monitor's findings showed the number of people facing acute hunger had fallen to 1.2 million between mid-April and the end of June.

However, that level is expected to rise to more than 1.4 million people, or 67%, by December, it said, warning that the gains are at risk as assistance begins to decline.

"Without sufficient funding, we will be forced to scale back assistance for people who depend on it for survival," Ross Smith, WFP director of emergency preparedness and response, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.

While increased operational costs linked to the war in Iran, which sparked a surge in oil prices and supply chain disruptions, have been a factor, the main issue is donor fatigue as global attention shifts elsewhere, Smith said, without giving details of what funding had been lost.

WFP said it needed more than $420 million to maintain operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank through the end of the year.

This month, cash assistance for 75,000 people was reduced by 25%, while 220,000 households saw food rations halved, Smith said. By October, WFP will have to make much deeper cuts unless additional funding is secured, Smith said.

Four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed near a Palestinian village on Friday in a confrontation that added to a growing toll over recent weeks as Israeli settler violence has intensified against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The incident near the village of Tal, southwest of Nablus, took place as settler attacks on Palestinian villages have increased sharply since the start of the year, according to figures from the United Nations.

Israel's military said it had received reports that Israeli civilians who were hiking in the area had been attacked near the village, in the so-called Area A of the West Bank. The area is under Palestinian Authority civil and security control and Israelis are officially prohibited from entering.�" REUTERS