Gaza Aid: Israel Controls Trucks as WFP Cuts 500,000

Israel said Monday it would gradually resume commercial shipments into Gaza. At the same time, the World Food Programme said a funding shortfall would end monthly assistance to 500,000 people and reduce aid for others. Shipments will resume under Israeli coordination and oversight; the cuts come as most Gazans remain dependent on aid after three years of war, repeated displacement and severe restrictions on deliveries.

The gate and the paperwork

COGAT, the Israeli military agency overseeing humanitarian affairs in Gaza, said it would restart coordination after merchants reported that Hamas authorities had withdrawn demands for payments of 10,000 shekels ($3,225) per truck. COGAT said it hadn’t independently verified the merchants’ accounts. The agency will prioritize essential goods ahead of winter and require merchants to make payments only through documented bank transfers. It will exclude merchants found to have paid Hamas.

Hamas described the payments differently: voluntary contributions by better-off Gazans to a national fund supporting people in need. Gaza’s Government Media Office rejected allegations that it imposed taxes or fees on commercial trucks, accused Israel of using the claims to justify restrictions, and called for 600 trucks to enter daily. The accounts conflict, but Israel still controls and inspects the route.

Israel allows more goods under the cease-fire, yet continues heavy restrictions, turning away shipments of items it alleges have military uses. The United Nations says prosthetic limbs are among them. Israel has intensified longstanding criticism of the United Nations since the Gaza war, accusing the body of bias and perpetuating Palestinian dependency.

Relief on a shrinking ledger

The WFP said 1.1 million Palestinians, about half Gaza’s population, would receive food or cash assistance each month, but in reduced amounts. Families receiving food aid will get one parcel instead of two, along with a smaller bag of wheat flour. For the 75,000 families receiving cash assistance, monthly payments will fall from 1,250 to 750 shekels ($400 to $240).

Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told Agence France-Presse in East Jerusalem: “People are not safe. Airstrikes continue daily. People remain displaced.” He added, “Almost everyone remains without a permanent home. The humanitarian conditions are brutal.” Latest assessments showed 1.4 million people, two-thirds of Gaza’s population, remained “acutely food insecure” and needed humanitarian aid to survive, Hughes said.

The WFP said it needs about $450 million over the next six months for operations in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Yet it has received only about half the usual funding for the Palestinian territories this year. Its resources have fallen sharply, including after President Donald Trump’s administration drastically cut contributions to U.N. agencies and bilateral aid. In September, the agency halved the number of aid recipients in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, from 400,000 to 200,000.

“This has been a lifeline. But now, rather than being able to sustain and scale up that assistance, we’re actually having to reduce it,” Hughes said. “That’s not because we don’t have humanitarian access to deliver food; that’s because we don’t have funding.” The relief agency can deliver, he said, but its funding pipeline can’t keep pace with the need.

Strikes continue under the cease-fire

Local health officials said at least five Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in separate strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis on Monday. The Israeli military did not immediately comment. Gaza health officials said Israeli fire had killed about 1,500 Palestinians since the October 2025 cease-fire; Israel said militants had killed four of its soldiers in Gaza over the same period.

The WFP said its efforts mitigated the effects of famine conditions reported in Gaza last August by the U.N. Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Israel disputed that finding and called it a lie. The agency increased assistance after the cease-fire, reaching between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people monthly. Now shipments are restarting gradually, aid is being cut for lack of funds, and strikes continue. Gaza’s civilians are left navigating terms set by armed authorities and the limits of an international relief system that depends on money states can withdraw.