Hamas Movement has rejected the justifications of the UN World Food Program (WFP) to cut food services offered to the impoverished Palestinian refugees in the blockaded Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
“The reduced services are expected to inflict horrific outcomes on hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who depend on the food assistance provided by WFP as their sole livelihood” Hamas said in a statement.
“The WFP’s services are extremely necessary especially during the current situation as the Palestinian people have been experiencing difficult humanitarian conditions owing to the 12-year Israeli siege on Gaza and the suffocating Israeli policies” it said.
Hamas called on the WFP to rescind its decision and to do its best to make up for the financial crunch.
Hamas also urged the international community and donors to provide immediate support for the WFP which provides critical services for the impoverished Palestinian refugees.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said food aid will be cut from next month to about 190000 Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank due to a shortage of funds.
Wednesday’s announcement follows the slashing of US aid funding to humanitarian agencies working in the occupied territories which the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees said this week would mean that half a million fewer Palestinians would be recipients of aid.
“WFP’s assistance has been a lifeline to tens of thousands of people who have exhausted all their meager resources while trying to cope with unabated and mounting hardships” said Stephen Kearney WFP country director in Palestine.
“As the gap between rising food needs and available resources continues to widen WFP has no alternative but to take these difficult decisions.”
From 1 January the United Nations agency will suspend food assistance to 27000 people in the West Bank.
In addition food aid to 165000 people in the territory and in the besieged Gaza Strip would be reduced by 20 percent from $10 to $8 per person each month.
The US cuts affected 40 percent of total WFP funding Kearney said.
“The major donor that we have had in the past years has been the US. They have cut funding not just to UNRWA who work with the refugees in Gaza but also to the rest of the humanitarian community including WFP” he said.
“We call on the international donor community to strengthen its support and help us prevent even more hardship.”
Kearney said Gaza’s underlying problems would remain as long as Israel maintained its blockade.
