PA Welfare Minister Ahmed Majdalani said the decision to end the programme was an extremely dangerous development, while Hamas warned that 200,000 people in Gaza would be directly affected.
Israeli media on June 2 quoted sources in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank expressing growing concern about the risk of a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, after the United Nations announced that the World Food Program (WFP) operations there would soon have to stop.
Haaretz newspaper quoted a senior official of Hamas, the force that governs the Gaza Strip, as saying that it is coordinating with the Palestinian Authority (PA), the force that governs the West Bank, to call on countries that sponsor the WFP to continue operating.
The annual budget for this relief program is about 200 million USD.
Hamas and the PA have no alternative funding capacity, and even Qatari aid, which provides $100 a month to tens of thousands of families in Gaza, will not be able to replace the UN WFP program.
PA Welfare Minister Ahmed Majdalani said the decision to end the program was an extremely dangerous development.
Another Hamas official warned that about 200,000 people in Gaza would be directly affected, not counting tens of thousands more who would be indirectly affected.
A recent report by the Gaza-based human rights organization Al-Mezan showed that after the latest armed conflict with Israel last month, 64% of all households in the Gaza Strip were at risk of food shortages and 40% were severely food-deficient./.
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