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UN’s World Food Program announces service cuts to Palestinians due to lack of funding UN set to leave half of Gaza and West Bank hungry, as food programme feels a lack of US money
(about 4 hours later)
The United Nations’ World Food Program will be cutting services to nearly 200,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip due to a lack of funding. The WFP said on Wednesday it needs another $57 million to continue providing for 360,000 impoverished Palestinians in 2019. Of those affected by the budget shortages, 27,000 Palestinians in the West Bank will lose food service, and another 166,000 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will receive reduced services, AP reports. WFP spokesman Raphael du Boispean attributed the crisis to the “recurrent problem” of declining donations. The Palestinians have faced major budget cuts this year after Washington slashed funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee program UNRWA and for USAID programs in the Palestinian territories. The UN’s World Food Programme is cutting food aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, putting some 190,000 impoverished people at risk. The lack of US funding, stopped in September, is being acutely felt by aid workers.
Come January, 27,000 people in the West Bank will have their food assistance cut off, and 165,000 people in the West Bank and Gaza will have their food aid cut by 20 percent.
“WFP has been forced, unfortunately, to make drastic cuts to the number of people that we support across Palestine, both in Gaza and the West Bank,” Stephen Kearney, WFP country director in the Palestinian Territories, told Reuters.
Humanitarian groups working with Palestinians have seen record low funding levels this year, largely as a result of the US’s decision to end its $300 million support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian (UNRWA) in September.
UN’s Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Jamie McGoldrick, this week issued an appeal for $350 million to help the people in Palestine, particularly in Gaza which has experienced “serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation,” as a result of an “enormous rise” in casualties at the March of Return protests, outbreaks of violence and an economy that is in “freefall.”  
“Our plan for 2019 prioritizes assistance for people assessed as being most in need of protection, food, health care, shelter, water and sanitation,” McGoldrick said on Monday. “It enables us to maximize limited funding. But much more is needed, and we stand ready to do more, if funding and operational space are improved.”
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