'Voucher is life': Palestinians as WFP to stop food aid due to 'severe' lacks of funds

Due to a "severe" lack of funding, the World Food Programme (WFP) will stop providing food assistance to more than 200,000 Palestinians starting next month, the organization's top representative for the Palestinian territories announced on Sunday.

The WFP's assistance in Gaza and the West Bank is crucial in supporting the basic needs of vulnerable populations in the context of ongoing conflict and occupation.

"In light of the severe funding shortages, WFP is forced to make painful choices to stretch the limited resources," the WFP's country director Samer Abdeljaber told Reuters .

"WFP would have to start suspending assistance to over 200,000 people, which is 60 percent of its current case load, from June," he added.

The WFP continues to call for an end to the blockade of Gaza and for greater access for humanitarian organizations in the West Bank. Families in Gaza and the West Bank, where food insecurity and poverty are at their worst levels, are the most affected.

The UN organisation's assistance includes food baskets and monthly vouchers that allow beneficiaries to purchase food from local markets. It also supports the local economy. The vouchers are of a value of $10.30 per person to Palestinians who are in need. However, if the aid stops, they will both be impacted.

According to Palestinian and UN data, Gaza is home to 2.3 million people, of whom 45% are unemployed and 80% rely on international aid. Gaza has been run by the Islamist Hamas group since 2007.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is aware of how this necessary and difficult choice would affect the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on food aid to meet their most basic requirements, according to Abdeljaber.

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Israel has spearheaded a blockade with Egypt for years that restricted the flow of people and commodities, citing security concerns with the enclave's Hamas leadership.

Abdeljaber noted that the decision to suspend help was made to save those who are most at risk of not being able to purchase their meals. The United Nations organisation will continue to provide assistance to 140,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank.

By August, he said, WFP would be obliged to completely stop providing food and financial relief if money is not received. Dozens of Palestinians demonstrated outside the WFP headquarters in Gaza City while chanting "No to Hunger" in opposition to the choice.

"The voucher is life, the message they sent us equals death since there is no other source of income," said Faraj Al-Masri, a father of two whose family receives vouchers worth $41.20 each month.

Jamalat El-Dabour, whose family receives coupons worth $164.80 a month in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip, claimed they will "starve to death" since her husband is unwell and unemployed.

(With inputs from agencies)

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