World Central Kitchen Cuts Hot Meal Assistance in Gaza

(MENAFN) Dozens of displaced Palestinians staged an emotional protest outside a World Central Kitchen distribution facility in central Gaza Monday, warning that sharp reductions in hot meal service could reignite famine conditions across the war-battered enclave.

Men, women, and children gathered at the organization's site in Al-Masdar village, raising signs demanding uninterrupted food assistance and calling on the charity to reverse its decision. Some demonstrators beat empty cooking pots — a visceral symbol of the hunger threatening their families.

World Central Kitchen acknowledged the cutbacks were "driven entirely by financial pressure" and stressed that humanitarian need on the ground had not diminished. The organization said it would sustain hundreds of thousands of daily hot meals, down sharply from the 1 million meals per day it had been delivering following an operational expansion prompted by deteriorating conditions.

"We depend completely on these meals. We cannot afford food, and we have no cooking gas or even wood to use as an alternative," an elderly displaced Palestinian woman told Anadolu, declining to give her name. She said numerous families had already endured multiple days without food. "If these cuts continue, famine will return," she warned.

Protest organizer Abdel Hadi Muslim said thousands of families in the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps had already lost access to daily meals since the reductions took effect. He urged World Central Kitchen, international institutions, and donors to sustain support for relief operations — particularly for the UN refugee agency. "This service is a lifeline for thousands of displaced and poor families," he said.

This is not the first time the organization has scaled back. Earlier this year, Gaza's government media office reported that World Central Kitchen had halted flour supplies to bakeries distributing subsidized bread throughout the territory.

The World Food Programme estimates 1.6 million people in Gaza are now facing severe food insecurity — a crisis that includes more than 100,000 children and 37,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Israel has maintained a blockade on the Gaza Strip since 2007, leaving the territory's 2.4 million residents on the edge of starvation. A military offensive launched in October 2023 has killed more than 72,000 people, wounded over 172,000 others, and caused widespread destruction across the besieged enclave.

MENAFN19052026000045017169ID1111135032