ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) on Monday said funding shortages had forced it to reduce food assistance in Gaza by about one-third, leaving around half a million people without access to what it described as “critical assistance.”

WFP said it had provided food and cash assistance to as many as 90 percent of families in Gaza over the past three years of war. Following the October 2025 ceasefire, the program reached 1.6 million people, but that number has since fallen to 1.11 million, with food rations cut by half.

“WFP no longer has sufficient funding to sustain this level of support,” the agency said.

The cuts come as winter approaches and many families in Gaza continue to struggle to secure enough food.

“Now, rather than being able to sustain and scale up that assistance, we're actually having to reduce it. And that's not because we don't have humanitarian access to deliver food; that's because we don't have funding,” said Shaun Hughes, WFP’s country director for Palestine.

“We're going from assisting about 75 percent of the population with good and substantial rations to perhaps less than 50 percent of the population with smaller rations,” he added.

Despite the ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025, Israeli strikes have continued intermittently in Gaza. More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas launched its surprise attacks on Israel in October 2023, including more than 1,200 since the truce took effect.

The ceasefire agreement provides for the eventual reconstruction of Gaza. However, little progress has been made toward implementing the broader deal to end the conflict, which includes provisions for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops.

WFP said it “urgently requires” $450 million to “maintain critical operations” in Gaza and the West Bank over the next six months.