In Numbers

USD 2.6 m cash based transfers (CBTs) made

USD 20.6 m six months (July-December 2018)

351, 000 people assisted in June

Operational Updates in March 2018

 In June, WFP assisted 351,153 poor and food insecure people: 241,024 people in Gaza and 110,129 people in the West Bank with food and cash-based transfers (CBT). WFP’s food assistance enables poor households to meet a share of their daily food needs and alleviates the decline in their purchasing power.

It is a fundamental safety net that keeps them from falling into deeper poverty, as well as a critical form of economic transfer allowing families to spend their meagre resources on other essentials.

 Hardships in Gaza have reached an unprecedented peak with the lives of the most vulnerable at breaking point. Behind a façade of normalcy, people’s plights and negative coping mechanisms are greater than what they have ever been, including during and in the aftermaths of the last armed hostilities (2014).

Poverty is entrenched affecting 53 percent of the population, marking a 35 percent increase compared to 2011 (39 percent), as per the latest poverty assessment. Unemployment keeps growing and has reached a record-high of 49 percent while it was at 45 and 47 percent in 2014 respectively before (Q2), during and after (Q3) the conflict.

 As a result of the above, more people are foodinsecure and eligible for WFP assistance. To meet the increased needs, WFP has enlisted 10,000 new CBT beneficiaries and now assists a total of 245,000 people. It was able to do so by relying on multilateral contributions and re-prioritising available funds in Gaza to ensure that the most acute needs are addressed, to the expense of other areas in the West Bank.

 Food insecurity, which is driven by poverty and lack of employment, is expected to have significantly increased compared to 2016 levels when the last assessments were carried out (39 percent). The 2017 Socio-Economic and Food Security Survey (SEFSec) is currently in preparation under the lead of the Food Security Sector: results are expected to be released in the last quarter of the year.

 WFP completed the first round of its bi-annual nutrition awareness sessions with 4,000 women, 1,500 men and 2,000 children trained on best nutritional and health practices in all five Gaza governorates.