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Food aid for 150,000 Palestinians could be suspended, warns UN

June 15, 2017 at 12:00 pm

Reduction in donations to the Gaza Strip during Ramadan 2017 on 14 June, 2017 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

The United Nations warned on Tuesday it would suspend humanitarian food aid for up to 150,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip due to lack of funding, Safa News Agency reported.

“Unless new funding is provided to the World Food Program (WFP) food aid will be suspended in July for nearly 150,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said in a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

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“The suspension of WFP assistance will undermine food security and further deteriorates the poor living conditions of the poorest families, most of whom live on less than $3.20 a day,” Dujarric added.

According to the UN official, “the WFP urgently needs $6.6 million to provide food assistance through vouchers over the next three months to the poorest non-refugee households in Gaza and the West Bank”.