Some 27,000 Palestinians are no longer receiving aid in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip due to funding shortages as the World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended aid for Palestinians.
Stephen Kearney, the organisation’s director for the Palestinian territories, said, the cuts were decided upon after a gradual donation reduction over four years.
The
U.S. aid cuts are having the biggest effect.
In 2018, the WFP assisted 250,000 people in Gaza and 110,000 in the West Bank.
A Palestinian woman Maha Al Nawajah, 52, in the village of Yatta near Hebron said
she is buying fewer necessities, adding, in December her WFP card, that allowed
her to buy groceries for 12 members of her family, was not renewed.
She said her family members were unemployed.
The West Bank has an unemployment rate of 18 per cent.
Some Palestinians seek to work in Israel with the hope of earning a higher salary but Israel is selective in issuing permits to work.
At the time $57 million is needed for the affected people in the Palestinian territories.
The WFP launched a funding appeal on Dec.19, but the aid received from the European Union and Switzerland was limited. In the Gaza Strip, around 80 per cent of the two million residents rely on international aid.
Stephen Kearney said there were also concerns that the cuts would affect the local economy since residents used the cards to buy goods in local stores.
