500,000 Gazans to lose UN food aid despite acute need

The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Monday it would end monthly assistance to 500,000 people in Gaza due to a funding shortfall, despite acute needs in the war-battered Palestinian territory. With the cutbacks, 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza – still about half the population – will be receiving either food or cash assistance each month from the UN agency, in reduced amounts. The WFP said its efforts had mitigated the effects during a famine last year in Gaza – a description of the situation disputed by Israel – and warned that conditions had not improved to the point that it can take away aid. "People are not safe. Airstrikes continue on a daily basis. People continue to be displaced," Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told AFP at the agency's office in east Jerusalem. "Almost everybody remains without a permanent home to live in. And the humanitarian conditions are brutal," he said. According to the latest assessments, 1.4 million people – or two-thirds of Gaza's population – are still "acutely food insecure" and need humanitarian assistance to survive, he said. In August last year, the UN's Integrated Food Security Phase Classification said that Gaza was suffering famine conditions. Israel, which has blockaded the territory and...