The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was to cut the number of people receiving food assistance in the occupied West Bank by half owing to a lack of funding.
The "difficult decision" means only 200,000 of the 400,000 people the WFP has been helping will continue to receive assistance through cash vouchers, food items, livelihood programmes and nutritional services, the UN body said in a statement. The cut is to take effect this month.
The WFP said the need for assistance in the West Bank had more than doubled since 2023, when an escalation in violence by Israeli forces and illegal settlers caused the forcible displacement of Palestinians and the disruption of livelihoods. It left more than 900,000 Palestinians food insecure.
Two thirds of households have experienced a "significant decline in income", the WFP said, while food and fuel prices remain among the highest in the region.
Rural areas have been the most affected, the agency added. Settlers have assaulted farmers, stolen their crops, burnt their land or killed their livestock.
“Families who were once thriving and earning a living from their land are now unable to afford enough food,” Shaun Hughes, WFP country director for Palestine, said in a statement.
“At a time when WFP should be scaling up assistance to reach more people, we are being forced to make difficult decisions, prioritising the most vulnerable while cutting assistance to others despite widespread needs. We urge the international community to act immediately and step up support for Palestinians.”
The funding shortage has also affected WFP operations in Gaza that reach 1.5 million people. In July, the WFP cut the cash value of assistance for 375,000 people by 40 per cent and warned of further cuts if the lack of funding continued.
"Over the next six months from September 2026, WFP urgently requires an additional $386 million to serve an estimated two million food insecure people across Gaza and the West Bank," the statement added.
Aid operations in Gaza are already suffering under an Israeli blockade, despite a fragile ceasefire that stipulates the free flow of humanitarian assistance into the enclave.
British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said on Tuesday that three UN warehouses were damaged in Gaza's Deir Al Balah during an Israeli strike, while other warehouses operated by the group's partner were extensively damaged in a similar incident in the past week.
Nearly all of Gaza's population of 2.1 million – more than 1.9 million people – need "shelter and essential non-food assistance", the charity added.
