Families will be hardest hit in Gaza, where food insecurity and poverty are highest, and in the West Bank. The UN agency offers poor Palestinians both monthly vouchers worth $10.30 per person and food parcels. Both programs will be impacted during the downsizing. Gaza, which has been ruled by the Islamist group Hamas since 2007, is home to up to 2.3 million people, 45% of whom are unemployed and 80% dependent on international aid, according to figures from the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations.
The UN agency will continue assisting 140,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank, Abdeljaber said, adding that the decision to suspend was made to save those most likely to be unable to get food. If funding is not received, the WFP will be forced to completely suspend food and cash assistance by August, he said.
Chanting “No to Hunger”, dozens of Palestinians staged a demonstration outside the WFP office in Gaza to protest the decision. “The good is life, the message they sent to us is equivalent to death because there is no other source of income,” said Faraj Al-Masri, a father of two whose family receives $41.20 per month in vouchers. In Jabalia, northern Gaza, Jamalat El-Dabour, whose family receives $164.80 a month in vouchers, said she was “starving” because her husband was sick and unemployed.
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