UN slashes Palestinian food aid amid funding shortages

Displaced Palestinians called for "more aid, not less assistance," after the United Nations was forced to slash food assistance to hundreds of thousands of residents due to a severe shortfall in funding.

The UN's World Food Programme said a critical shortage of funds has forced it to cut food aid to 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza and a further 200,000 in the West Bank.

In Gaza alone, the number of people receiving food assistance has been reduced from 1.6 million to 1.1 million this month.

"Three years on and we've been living in a back and forth of aid being given and scaled back.", a displaced man living in a tented camp say.

Residents also said the rationing will have a devastating impact on families who rely entirely on aid packages to survive, and warned that further cuts will worsen hunger and risk the spread of famine.

The World Food Programme is appealing to the international community for US $450 million in funding to restore rations and hot meals over the next six months.