The World Food Program said it would cut food aid next year to about 190,000 poor Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank due a shortage of funds, the WFP's senior official for the Palestinian Territories said on Wednesday.
The WFP is the food assistance branch of the United Nations and the world's largest humanitarian organization addressing hunger and promoting food security.
The move follows the slashing of U.S. aid funding to humanitarian agencies working in the territories by the Trump administration.
"WFP has been forced, unfortunately, to make drastic cuts to the number of people that we support across Palestine, both in Gaza and the West Bank," WFP country director Stephen Kearney said.
From Jan. 1, the United Nations agency will suspend food assistance to 27,000 people in the West Bank. In addition, food aid to 165,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would be reduced by 20% from $10 to $8 per person each month.
The U.S. cuts affected 40% of total WFP funding, Kearney said.
"The major donor that we have had in the past years has been the U.S. They have cut funding, not just to UNRWA, who work with the refugees in Gaza, but also to the rest of the humanitarian community, including WFP," he said.
A spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, declined comment.
In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum urged the United Nations to "continue to provide the needs of the Palestinian people until they regain their freedom."
Most of the help provided by WFP is through electronic cards, which people use to buy food at a network of 185 shops.
Palestinians and humanitarian workers fear the cuts will cause a downward spiral, as people buy less from businesses, and they in turn purchase less from suppliers.
