Alwaght- The World Food Program (WFP) on Sunday said it would suspend food aid to over 200,000 Palestinians from next month due to a “severe” shortage of funds.
“In light of the severe funding shortages, WFP is forced to make painful choices to stretch the limited resources," said Samer Abdeljaber, the WFP's country director. "WFP would have to start suspending assistance to over 200,000 people, which is 60 percent of its current caseload, from June."
The United Nations body provides monthly vouchers with a value of $10.30 per person and food baskets to families who cannot get by without. Both programs will be affected.
The most impacted families are in the besieged Gaza Strip, where food insecurity and poverty are the highest, as well as in the occupied West Bank. In Gaza City, chanting “no to hunger,” dozens of Palestinians rallied outside the WFP’s office in protest.
In Jabalia of northern Gaza, Jamalat al-Dabour said she and her family will "starve to death" as her husband was sick and unemployed.
“If they cut the vouchers, we will starve to death. People may set fire to themselves or jump off rooftops,” she told Reuters. “When a child asks for food and we can't find any, what should we do? God knows I have nothing.”
Gaza, a costal enclave besieged by Israeli regime and Egypt since 2005, is home to 2.3 million people, of which 45 percent are unemployed and 80 percent depend on international aid, according to Palestinian and UN data.
"The voucher is life, the message they sent us equals death since there is no other source of income," said Gaza resident Faraj Al-Masri. “I am jobless. If they don't want to give us vouchers, they have to create jobs for us.”
