00:00The United Nations World Food Programme is warning that funding shortages are forcing major cuts to food assistance in Gaza.
00:07Around half a million people are set to lose their monthly food aid as the programme reduces the number of
00:13people it supports from 1.6 million to 1.1 million.
00:17The cuts come as families across the territory continue to struggle to access enough food.
00:22The number of hot meals distributed each day is being reduced from 250,000 to 150,000, a shortfall of
00:30100,000 meals daily.
00:33Some families in hard-to-reach areas will also receive food every other day instead of every day.
00:40Nearly all of Gaza's 2.1 million people remain displaced and two-thirds of the population rely on food aid
00:48to survive.
00:49With funding shortages now forcing reductions in support, displaced families face further uncertainty over how they will secure enough food.
00:59Well, Claire Neville is the head of communications at the World Food Programme Palestine.
01:04Claire, thank you for joining me.
01:06So WFP says half a million people in Gaza will lose food assistance.
01:11This sounds a pretty serious situation on the ground.
01:16Yes, it's extremely concerning.
01:18And this is happening, you know, at a time when families are entering the winter season in Gaza, which can
01:25be particularly harsh.
01:27And we know that the majority of the community in Gaza is still relying on WFP for food assistance.
01:34We've been supporting around 1.6 million people in Gaza every month with hot meals, food parcels, cash assistance, nutritious
01:48snacks in schools and some early recovery activities as well.
01:53But now our funding shortfalls are cutting this lifeline short right at the time when we should be sustaining this
02:02important humanitarian assistance for the majority of the population in Gaza.
02:06Because there's been such a lack of recovery, there's been no meaningful recovery for people to really maintain their own
02:15food security.
02:17So this humanitarian assistance is a lifeline and we're having to reduce at a really critical point to the majority
02:25of the population in Gaza.
02:27You're talking there about the funding shortages.
02:30Is this a sign, do you think, that Gaza is becoming a lower priority for the international community?
02:37We have had a lot of contributions over the last three years, some extremely important donor partners who've been committing
02:45consistently to this crisis.
02:49However, we are seeing a drop off this year.
02:52We've received less than half of what we received in the previous two years from our donor partners across the
03:00board.
03:01And we still have had important contributions, but it's not enough to sustain this humanitarian assistance lifeline to 1.6
03:12million people in Gaza.
03:15So we are seeing that, you know, there are many competing crises around the world three years into this brutal
03:24war.
03:25And it's far from over.
03:27I mean, when you're in Gaza, it's clear that there is no real ceasefire holding.
03:32There are bombs dropping every day, daily attacks, people being displaced over and over again.
03:40And so I think what we've really seen is donor fatigue when it comes to this crisis.
03:47And the attention has gone elsewhere.
03:50But now is not the time to look away.
03:53People need, international community need to step up and sustain this support to people in Gaza.
03:59Claire Neville, thank you very much indeed for that.
