WFP warns of deeper cuts in Gaza aid due to donor fatigue

GENEVA: The U.N. World Food Programme warned on Friday it would have to ‌make deeper cuts to its aid in Gaza, where it supports 70% of the population, unless additional funding is secured.

The comments come after the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global hunger monitor, said ​more than two-thirds of Gazans could face acute hunger by the end ​of the year as humanitarian agencies cut aid flows due to funding ⁠shortages.

The majority of the population are reliant on aid supplies following two years of ​war, repeated displacement and severe restrictions imposed by Israel on aid deliveries.

The monitor’s findings ​showed the number of people facing acute hunger had fallen to 1.2 million between mid-April and the end of June.

However, that level is expected to rise to more than 1.4 million people, or 67%, ​by December, it said, warning that the gains are at risk as assistance begins to ​decline.

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“Without sufficient funding, we will be forced to scale back assistance for people who depend on ‌it for ⁠survival,” Smith told reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome.

While increased operational costs linked to the war in Iran, which sparked a surge in oil prices and supply chain disruptions, have been a factor, the main issue is donor fatigue as global ​attention shifts elsewhere, Smith ​said, without giving ⁠details of what funding had been lost.

WFP said it needed more than $420 million to maintain operations in Gaza and the occupied West ​Bank through the end of the year.

This month, cash assistance for ​75,000 people ⁠was reduced by 25%, while 220,000 households saw food rations halved, Smith said. By October, WFP will have to make much deeper cuts unless additional funding is secured, Smith said.