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CAIRO\/GAZA: The UN World Food Programme has said funding shortages are forcing major cuts to its aid programme \u200cin Gaza, leaving about 500,000 people without monthly food support in a territory where two-thirds of the population struggle to get enough to eat.<\/strong><\/p>\n The WFP said it was reducing the number of recipients of its monthly assistance to 1.1 million people from 1.6 million.<\/p>\n In addition, food rations \u200bhave been halved, cash assistance has been cut for 75,000 families, and the number of daily hot meals \u200bfor those unable to cook has fallen to 150,000 from 250,000, with some families in hard-to-reach \u2060areas now receiving a hot meal only every other day.<\/p>\n The WFP said about 1.4 million people, or two-thirds of Gaza\u2019s \u200bpopulation, face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, including roughly 200,000 people in emergency conditions.<\/p>\n Last year\u2019s US-brokered Gaza ceasefire calls for \u200bthe eventual reconstruction of the territory. But little progress has been made towards implementing a deal to end the conflict that includes terms for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops.<\/p>\n LIFE IS STILL BRUTAL IN GAZA, SAYS ACTING HEAD OF WFP<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a year into the agreement \u200bof this ceasefire. Well, life is still brutal here. There is no proper shelter\u2026There is no basic services. There is \u200bno safety, no security,\u201d acting Executive Director of the WFP Carl Skau told Reuters in Gaza.<\/p>\n \u201cThese cuts are happening just as we are \u200cfacing \u2060the fourth winter. You know, I\u2019ve been through the winters here, absolutely brutal,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The WFP said it urgently needs $450 million over the next six months to maintain critical operations in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tell the world now is not the time to look away. This is the time to step up to sustain this support, to protect the progress \u200bthat has been made, but \u200balso to push for early \u2060recovery,\u201d said Skau.<\/p>\n Israeli forces still hold more than 60% of the territory and conduct almost daily airstrikes, while Hamas controls most of the area where more than two million Palestinians live, \u200bmostly in temporary shelters with what aid agencies call inadequate aid supplies.<\/p>\n The Hamas-run Gaza government \u200bmedia office described \u2060the WFP announcement as \u201ccatastrophic\u201d and said it might accelerate famine in the enclave, calling for more fund to aid agencies to prevent it. \u201cOn top of the circumstances and the difficult life, you want to make it even harder on us,\u201d said Palestinian woman Sabrine \u2060Kuhail, standing \u200bby a tent shelter at a displacement site in Nuseirat refugee camp \u200bin central Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n \u201cYou made us hungry for three years with war, destruction, siege, and the bloodshed that is not stopping. What do you want from \u200bus? Enough, enough, we are tired.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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