WFP says it will cut Gaza aid unless it gets more funding

By Reuters 24 July 2026, 2:56 pm

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Displaced Palestinians, including women and children, gather to receive hot meals distributed by a charity kitchen in the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the Central Gaza Strip on June 12, 2026 (Eyad Baba/AFP)

The UN World Food Programme warns 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 is reliant on aid supplies following two years of war, repeated displacement and restrictions imposed by Israel on aid deliveries.

“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, tells reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.

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

Israel says it does not restrict the entry of food into Gaza and has facilitated the entry of more than 1.8 million tons of food into the enclave since an October 2025 ceasefire.