The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on Friday a 50% reduction in the scope of its food operations in the Gaza Strip, describing the move as a forced measure driven by a severe shortage of international funding needed to sustain relief operations.
In an official statement issued from its headquarters in Rome, the programme said the reduction would take effect immediately and would include cutting the number of beneficiaries receiving daily food rations, reducing the number of operating distribution points across the strip, and decreasing the size of food parcels distributed to families.
A spokesperson for the programme said: "We have reached a critical point where we can no longer maintain the previous level of operations. We are facing an unprecedented funding gap that threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians who rely entirely on our assistance to survive."
According to WFP data, the reduction will directly affect about one million people in the strip who had been receiving regular food support.
Estimates indicated that the programme needs at least an additional $400 million until the end of the current year to resume its operations in full.
The World Food Programme called on donor countries and the international community to act urgently to close the funding gap, warning that the continuation of the current situation could lead to a catastrophic deterioration in levels of food insecurity, which is currently classified at emergency levels in most parts of the strip.
The World Food Programme is one of the largest actors in food relief in the Gaza Strip, providing emergency food assistance to hundreds of thousands of displaced people and affected families since the humanitarian crisis in the strip escalated.
The strip suffers from a tight siege and widespread destruction of infrastructure, making the delivery of humanitarian aid an extremely complex logistical challenge even before the current funding crisis.
