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GAZA, PALESTINE - OCT. 21, 2026: Palestinian parents in Gaza are increasingly worried about how to feed their children after the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced cuts to food assistance due to funding shortages, warning that hundreds of thousands of people would lose access to vital aid.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are struggling to survive in makeshift tents and damaged buildings amid widespread destruction caused by Israeli attacks. Many families rely on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, while some survive on just one meal a day.
Ibrahim al-Qassas, whose home in northern Gaza was destroyed in Israeli attacks, has been displaced several times and is struggling to provide food for his five children. Wounded in an Israeli attack, he also lost his hand and has no source of income.
Al-Qassas told Anadolu that WFP assistance covered around 90% of his family's needs and that the planned cuts would be devastating for displaced families with many children. He said his family had no other source of income and depended on food aid to survive, warning that he had no means of feeding his children if assistance was reduced.
He said community kitchens distributed meals only once or twice a week, while people struggled to secure food for their children. Even existing assistance was insufficient, he added, explaining that his family received only one sack of flour roughly every three months.
His wife, Daniya al-Qassas, said WFP food parcels, canned goods and hot meals had helped the family survive, but the prospect of reduced assistance had left her deeply distressed.
She said she worried every morning about what her children would eat and carefully rationed the food they had left. The children usually ate two meals a day but sometimes had to make do with just one, she added.
On Oct. 19, the WFP announced that funding shortages would force it to reduce assistance in Gaza. The agency said it planned to cut the number of people receiving food and humanitarian aid from around 1.6 million to 1.1 million this month.
The WFP also said daily hot meal distributions would be reduced from 250,000 to 150,000. Palestinians living near the Israeli military-controlled Yellow Line would receive hot meals every other day instead of daily, according to the agency.