Gaza Aid Cut Looms as Commercial Shipments Resume

The World Food Programme will end monthly assistance for 500,000 people in Gaza and cut aid to hundreds of thousands more because its money has run out. The announcement came Monday, October 19, the same day Israel said it would gradually resume commercial shipments into the territory after a days-long halt.

"People are not safe. Airstrikes continue daily. People remain displaced," Shaun Hughes, the WFP country director, told Agence France-Presse in East Jerusalem. "Almost everyone remains without a permanent home. The humanitarian conditions are brutal."

The Humanitarian Picture

The latest assessments paint a stark picture: 1.4 million people, two-thirds of Gaza's population, remain "acutely food insecure" and need humanitarian aid to survive, Hughes said. The WFP says 1.1 million Palestinians, about half of Gaza's population, will still receive food or cash assistance each month, though in reduced amounts.

Families receiving food assistance will get one parcel instead of two, along with a smaller bag of wheat flour. For the 75,000 families receiving cash assistance, monthly support will fall from 1,250 shekels to 750, or from $400 to $240.

After the cease-fire announced in October 2025, the WFP increased assistance, reaching between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people monthly. "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 agency says it needs about $450 million over the next six months for operations in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. 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 WFP halved the number of aid recipients in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, from 400,000 to 200,000.

"Now is not the time in the history of Palestine and Gaza to turn away from what is happening in Gaza," Hughes said. The WFP says conditions have moderately improved, but winter could bring rising needs.

A Dispute Over Trucks and Fees

The resumption of commercial shipments follows a standoff. 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 no independent party had verified the merchants' accounts.

Shipments will resume gradually, with essential goods taking priority ahead of winter. COGAT said it would tighten oversight to ensure payments are made and received only through documented bank transfers. Merchants found to have paid Hamas will be excluded from the system.

Hamas describes the payments as 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.

Strikes Continue Under the Cease-Fire

The reopening comes as violence continues. Local health officials said at least five Palestinians, including a 14-year-old boy, died Monday in separate strikes in Gaza City and Khan Younis. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

Gaza health officials say Israeli fire has killed about 1,500 Palestinians since the October 2025 cease-fire. Israel says militants in Gaza have killed four of its soldiers over the same period. Israel also says Hamas has continued to rearm and carry out attacks in violation of the truce, while Hamas accuses Israel of undermining it.

Under the cease-fire, Israel allows more goods into Gaza but maintains heavy restrictions, turning away shipments of items it alleges have military uses, including prosthetic limbs, the United Nations says. Israel has intensified its longstanding criticism of the United Nations since the Gaza war, accusing the body of bias and of perpetuating Palestinian dependency.

The WFP says its work mitigated the effects of famine conditions reported in Gaza last August by the U.N.-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. Israel disputed the finding and called it a lie. After three years of war, repeated displacement and severe restrictions on aid deliveries, most Gazans still depend on aid.

Why This Matters: Aid that keeps people alive is now being rationed because money has run out, not because access has failed. That distinction matters. Two-thirds of Gaza's population still can't reliably feed itself, and winter is coming. The fee dispute shows how fragile the supply chain remains: commercial shipments stopped for days over competing accounts neither side has resolved. Meanwhile, strikes continue a year into the cease-fire, killing civilians, including a 14-year-old boy on Monday. Donors, including the United States, face a choice over whether to fund a truce that depends on aid. Families bear the cost, receiving one parcel where they once got two.