Funding cuts force WFP to scale back food aid in Gaza

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on 19 October 2026 that funding shortages have forced it to reduce food assistance in Gaza by around one-third, leaving half a million people without access to critical aid, according to a press release. The reductions arrive as winter approaches and recent modest improvements in food security remain fragile. For three years, WFP food assistance has served as a lifeline for up to 90 percent of families in Gaza. Since the ceasefire announced in October 2025, the agency had been reaching around 1.6 million people each month. The organization no longer has sufficient funding to sustain that level of support.

WFP’s assistance in Gaza has included food parcels, wheat flour, bread, hot meals, nutrition support, school snacks, and cash transfers. An estimated 1.4 million people, or 67 percent of Gaza’s population, are experiencing acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse, classified as IPC Phase 3 or above. This marks a decline from 1.6 million people, or 77 percent of the population, at the end of 2025. Around 200,000 people remain in Emergency conditions (IPC Phase 4), where immediate food assistance is needed to prevent deaths from hunger. More than 80 percent of people in Gaza are unemployed, leaving many families unable to afford fresh produce or protein-rich foods.

From this month, WFP is supporting 1.1 million of the most vulnerable people in Gaza with food and cash assistance, down from 1.6 million last month. Food rations have been cut by half, with families receiving one food parcel instead of two and a smaller bag of wheat flour. Daily hot meals have been reduced from 250,000 to 150,000, and households in hard-to-reach areas, including near the yellow line of Israeli military control, will receive a hot meal every other day. The value of cash assistance provided to 75,000 families has also been reduced. Funding shortfalls are affecting operations in the West Bank, where WFP halved the number of recipients from 400,000 to 200,000 in September.

For now, WFP continues to support bakeries that cover one-third of Gaza’s bread needs, provide nutrition assistance to 300,000 women and children, and deliver healthy school snacks to 200,000 children. Only one in five children consumes a sufficiently diverse diet, while access to health, water, sanitation, and hygiene services remains limited. The latest IPC analysis warns that reductions in humanitarian assistance could drive a sharp increase in food assistance needs. Improved humanitarian access since October 2025 helped ease food insecurity, but these gains could quickly be reversed if funding continues to decline. Additional resources are urgently needed to sustain emergency food assistance and prevent malnutrition.

“We spent a whole week without bread. This bag of flour means everything to me. It means life,” said a woman now living in displacement in Al Saraya Camp after losing three sons, her husband, and her home during the war.

WFP received less than half as much funding for its Palestine operation in 2026 as in previous years. The agency urgently requires USD 450 million to maintain critical operations in Gaza and the West Bank over the next six months, from October 2026 to March 2027. Without additional contributions, further cuts to lifesaving assistance may follow. The agency underscored that winter will test the resilience of families already pushed to the edge.