The World Food Programme has announced major cuts to its Gaza operations due to a funding shortage, leaving around 500,000 people without critical support as the population of the war-ravaged territory continues to struggle to secure enough food.

In a statement issued Monday, the UN agency said it received less than half as much funding for its Palestinian operations in 2026 as in previous years. It said it urgently needs $450 million to maintain critical operations across the occupied Palestinian territory over the next six months.

As a result, the total number of people receiving monthly assistance in Gaza will fall from 1.6 million to 1.1 million — a reduction of roughly one third. Rations will be cut from two food parcels per family to one, bags of flour will be smaller, and the number of people receiving flour and ration boxes each month will drop from 1.1 million to 600,000.

The number of hot meals provided daily through community kitchens will also be reduced, from 250,000 to 150,000. Families living in hard-to-reach areas — including those near the so-called Yellow Line demarcating Israel's area of military control — will receive a hot meal every other day instead of daily.

The cuts come as winter approaches and at a time when nearly all of Gaza's 2.1 million people remain displaced. Two-thirds of the population relies on food aid to survive, according to UN-backed estimates.

The WFP's Palestine director, Shaun Hughes, said the reductions are being made because of finances, "not because the needs are coming down, or because we don't have access — we do."

"It's still a very concerning humanitarian situation, people living in brutal conditions, most people still without a proper home, living in tents, poor access to water and sanitation and healthcare," Hughes said. "Cuts to food assistance are going to compound that hardship that families have been facing."

Funding shortfalls had already affected operations since July, when cash transfers to around half a million people were reduced, leaving them with less money to buy food in local markets.

An estimated 1.4 million people — around 67 percent of Gaza's population — are experiencing acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse. That figure is down from 1.6 million, or 77 percent of the population, at the end of 2025. However, the WFP described the improvement as "modest and fragile," warning the new cuts threaten to reverse it.

More than 80 percent of people in Gaza are unemployed and unable to afford fresh or protein-rich food even when it is available in markets. Only one in five children consumes a sufficiently diverse diet.

Displaced Palestinians who spoke to reporters described the cuts as devastating. "It's a disaster! What will we do with these reduced rations? How will we provide for the little ones?" said Mervat al-Satari, a mother of five living in a camp in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis. "Sometimes we wait for these meals to eat."

Sawsan Bahloul, also from al-Mawasi and a mother of three, said the portions provided by community kitchens — typically pasta or lentils, with occasional potatoes and aubergines — were already too small to feed her family. "This will affect us a lot. The daily aid was somehow ticking the box but now it will be every two days," she said.

Dalal al-Dahdouh, living in the ruins of her home in Gaza City with a family of eight, said the existing rations were already insufficient. "The flour isn't enough and the food boxes aren't enough either," she said, adding that she fears the new cuts will have "a major impact."

No cooking gas is available in Gaza, as the Israeli government classifies it as a dual-use item. Wood is expensive, and many families send their children into the streets to collect plastic and cardboard to burn as fuel for cooking or heating food.

There has been no reconstruction and little recovery in Gaza since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel was agreed a year ago. Violence has continued, including near-daily Israeli strikes, and Israel maintains tight control over the entry of goods through crossings.

The funding shortfall has also affected the occupied West Bank, where the number of people receiving WFP assistance was halved in September, falling from 400,000 to 200,000.

Gaza's health ministry reports more than 74,245 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict began following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.