Geneva, Switzerland - The United Nations' food agency warned Tuesday that funding cuts were forcing it to slash the number of aid recipients in the West Bank in half, warning of dire consequences.
The World Food Programme said that from this month it would be reducing the number of people it reaches with food aid in the Palestinian territory from 400,000 to 200,000.
"WFP is being forced to reduce the number of people we assist in the West Bank by half," Shaun Hughes, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories, told reporters in Geneva.
"This is happening as the food needs in the West Bank are more than double what they were two years ago," he warned, speaking from London.
He pointed out that food insecurity had not traditionally been a major problem in the West Bank. But he argued that since October 2023, "intensified settler violence, prolonged and escalating Israeli military operations, severe movement restrictions, demolitions and widespread displacement in the West Bank have eroded Palestinian livelihoods and contributed to increased food insecurity."
The WFP said that its latest quarterly food security analysis found that 76% of households in the West Bank had experienced a significant decline in income, with many families forced to sell assets and reduce the number and quality of their meals to survive.
The analysis found that a third of families could not afford a nutritious diet due to the rapidly deteriorating economy, the agency said, adding that those living in rural areas and in the southern West Bank governorates were the most affected.
"Families who were once thriving and earning a living from their land are now unable to afford enough food," Hughes said.
Israeli military and settler attacks are on the rise in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967. The Palestinian Health Ministry reports more than 1,100 Palestinian people killed in the territory since October 2023.