World Food Programme Cuts Aid to 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Citing Funding Shortages

By Reuters
|
Oct. 19, 2026, at 3:21 a.m.


World Food Programme Cuts Aid to 500,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Citing Funding Shortages



REUTERS

Palestinian children wait to receive food from a soup kitchen funded by the World Food Programme (WFP), in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip October 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa


CAIRO/GAZA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The UN World Food Programme ⁠has ⁠said funding shortages are ⁠forcing major cuts to its aid programme in Gaza, leaving ​about 500,000 people without monthly food support in a territory where two-thirds of the population ‌struggle to get enough to eat.

The ‌WFP said it was reducing the number of recipients of its monthly assistance ⁠to 1.1 ⁠million people from 1.6 million.

In addition, food rations have been halved, ​cash assistance has been cut for 75,000 families, and the number of daily hot meals for those unable to cook has fallen to 150,000 from 250,000, with some families in ​hard-to-reach areas now receiving a hot meal only every other day.
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The WFP said ⁠about ⁠1.4 million people, or two-thirds ⁠of Gaza's ​population, face crisis levels of food insecurity or worse, including roughly 200,000 people in ​emergency conditions.

Last year's US-brokered ⁠Gaza ceasefire calls for the eventual reconstruction of the territory. But little progress has been made towards implementing a deal to end the conflict that includes terms for Hamas to disarm and Israel to withdraw its troops.

"It's a year into the agreement ⁠of this ceasefire. Well, life is still brutal here. There is no ⁠proper shelter.. There is no basic services. There is no safety, no security," acting Executive Director of the World Food Program WFP Carl Skau told Reuters in Gaza.

"These cuts are happening just as we are facing the fourth winter. You know, I've been through the winters here, absolutely brutal," he added.

The WFP said it urgently needs $450 million over the next six months to maintain critical operations in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

"We tell ⁠the world now is this is not the time to look away. This is the time to step up to sustain this support, to protect the progress that has been made, but also to push for early ​recovery," said Skau.

(Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Mahmoud Issa ​in Gaza;Editing by David Goodman, William Maclean)


Copyright 2026 Thomson Reuters.

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Gaza Catholic school reopens, welcoming 1,000 students

The building sheltered more than 450 people displaced by bombardment. Now, the parish hopes the school can give children a sense of safety and routine amid the destruction.

The Roman Catholic Holy Family Church in Gaza City, 2021. (Photo by Anas-Mohammed/Shutterstock)

Elise Winland

September 28, 2026 

Holy Family School in Gaza City reopened Sept. 15 for about 1,000 students, serving families from Holy Family Catholic Parish and the wider community, according to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Before the war, five Christian schools operated in Gaza — three Catholic, one Orthodox, and one Evangelical — and Christian pupils attended different schools across the territory.

George Akroush, director of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem’s Project Development Office, told ACN that around 130 Christian pupils, about 13% of the student body, would attend Holy Family School. Most of the school’s students are Muslim.

“For the first time, all Christian students in Gaza will be studying together in one Christian school,” Akroush told an ACN delegation visiting the region. “This creates a strong sense of community and shows that the Church remains close to them, accompanying them in the midst of all they are going through.”

Before reopening, the school sheltered more than 450 people displaced by Israeli bombardment, according to ACN. Holy Family parish priest Father Gabriel Romanelli said staff worked to make the school a place where children could feel safe amid the destruction in Gaza.

“For the students and the families, reopening the school will bring some sense of normality. We have worked hard to ensure that it is a safe environment,” Father Romanelli told ACN. “There is almost nowhere in Gaza that has not been destroyed; destruction is all around. But we have worked hard to make the school a clean environment, where the children, who have been through so much, can feel safe.”

Father Romanelli said “the needs in Gaza are enormous.” The parish hopes to offer families some sense of normality, he said, “even though nothing is normal in Gaza.” After Sunday Mass, he takes parishioners to a beach in Gaza City for recreation, despite the rubble there.

The school will also provide support for children and teachers affected by the war.

“Many of the teachers are so traumatized, and it is almost as if they are not the same people who we knew before the start of the war,” Father Romanelli told ACN.

He said the school has added special psychosocial support to its program and plans to offer activities after classes. Children have asked him to keep the school open because they have nowhere else to go, he said.

“Everyone in Gaza is carrying so much trauma,” the parish priest told ACN, adding, “For me, the school is a light in the darkness. It means a lot to people. When they see the 1,000 students coming in their uniforms to the school, it shows them that there is a future.”

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The Curious Creature from Davos

 

First meeting of US-led Board of Peace Reuters

Trump to host first Gaza peace board meeting Thursday with $5bn pledged

PM Shehbaz leaves for Washington to attend Trump's 'Board of Peace' meeting on Gaza

Sources say premier is expected to hold one-on-one meeting with Trump during his stay in US

By
Web Desk

February 18, 2026



Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (left) speaks with US President Donald Trump at the “Board of Peace” meeting during the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026 in Davos on January 22, 2026. — AFP


Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif departed for the United States on Wednesday to attend the inaugural global summit of the Board of Peace (BoP), hosted by US President Donald Trump in Washington on February 19.

The prime minister left for Washington from London, where he had arrived on Tuesday for a brief two-day stay following the conclusion of his official visit to Austria.

The sources said PM Shehbaz would have a one-on-one meeting with host President Donald Trump during his stay in Washington, The News reported last week.

They said that one of the key goals of the Washington meeting was to mobilise funding for Gaza’s reconstruction. More than 20 countries, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Indonesia, Argentina and Hungary, are members of the board.

Last month, Foreign Office Spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said that Pakistan would continue to engage with international efforts aimed at peace and security in Gaza.

“Pakistan will remain engaged with international efforts for peace and security in Gaza, leading to a lasting solution to the Palestine issue in accordance with United Nations resolutions,” he said.

Trump takes part in board of peace charter announcement

What to know about Trump's "Board of Peace" as world leaders meet in Davos

By
Sarah Lynch Baldwin,
Jennifer Jacobs,
Olivia Gazis, Sara Cook,
Kathryn Watson

January 21, 2026 / 2:24 PM EST / CBS News

President Trump's proposed "Board of Peace" is expected to be a focus of world leaders in Davos this week as questions linger over its composition and scope months after it was announced as part of the administration's peace plan for Gaza.

The White House released new details about the board's leadership last week, and the president has recently suggested that its work could extend beyond Gaza.

Now, the board's formation is facing headwinds from U.S. allies, as nations consider joining — or rejecting — the body.

Mr. Trump is expected to make an announcement on Thursday about a Board of Peace charter, according to his schedule in Davos. The White House had not officially released any information as of Wednesday about the charter or its contents.

Here's what to know.

US names Rubio, Tony Blair, Kushner to Gaza board under Trump's plan

By Kanishka Singh

January 16, 202611:40 PM EST



Palestinians move past the rubble of residential buildings destroyed during the war, in Gaza City, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Summary

• Trump names himself 'Board of Peace' chair under October plan
• White House to announce more board members in coming weeks
• Gaza has had a fragile ceasefire since October

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The White House on Friday announced some members of a so-called "Board of Peace" that is to supervise the temporary governance of Gaza, which has been under a fragile ceasefire since October.

The names include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump is the chair of the board, according to a plan his White House unveiled in October.

Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas signed off on Trump's plan, which says a Palestinian technocratic body will be overseen by the international board, which will supervise Gaza's governance for a transitional period.

Many rights experts and advocates have said that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory's governance resembled a colonial structure, while Blair's involvement was criticized last year due to his role in the Iraq war and the history of British imperialism in the Middle East.

The White House did not detail the responsibilities of each member of the "founding Executive board." The names do not include any Palestinians. The White House said more members will be announced over the coming weeks.

Pope Leo meets Palestinian president, calls for two-state solution to "end the conflict" in the Middle East

By Chris Livesay

November 6, 2025 / 11:36 AM EST / CBS News

Rome — Pope Leo XIV met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican on Thursday, marking their first in-person encounter since the Chicago native was chosen to lead the Catholic Church in May. The two had spoken previously on the phone.

The hour-long meeting, described by the Holy See as "cordial," focused on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and renewed calls for a two-state solution, a position the Vatican has consistently promoted as the only viable path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The talks came nearly a month after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took hold in Gaza, bringing a fragile calm following two years of conflict that began with Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel.

According to a Vatican statement, both leaders agreed on "the urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza," and to "end the conflict by pursuing a two-state solution," which would see an independent Palestinian state created alongside Israel.

Pope Leo XVI meets with President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas during an audience at the Apostolic Palace, Nov. 6, 2025, in Vatican City.Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty

Abbas' visit also marked the 10th anniversary of the "Comprehensive Agreement" signed in 2015 between the Holy See and the State of Palestine — which saw the Vatican, like a rising number of countries, formally recognize Palestinian statehood.

Shrinking Palestinian Christian Population Wary of Cease-Fire

HEATHER M. SURLS


“As people, we can live together … because this is what Jesus asked us to do.”

One of the Palestinian prisoners released in the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

CHRISTIANITY TODAYOCTOBER 16, 2025

Zain Jaafar / Contributor / Getty

To get from her home in Bethlehem to her college and workplace in Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem, Christine Awad had to pass through the only Israeli checkpoint connecting the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. Without this barrier and the traffic it forms, the drive would take 20 minutes. With it and the increased restrictions after the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants, Awad’s commute every morning and evening until the end of her employment in June could stretch into a two-hour journey.

Every time she reached the checkpoint—one of the West Bank’s 849 checkpoints, road gates, and obstacles—Israeli soldiers climbed onto the bus. Sometimes they checked passenger IDs. Other times they demanded riders hand over unlocked phones and searched their contacts, messages, and photos. Sometimes they ordered commuters to get off the bus to undergo further inspection. Once a female friend of Awad’s was taken inside a booth and strip searched.

“You have no agency,” Awad, a Palestinian Christian, said of these interactions. “You can’t say no. You can’t refuse.”

Awad, now a graduate student at Bethlehem University, described passing through checkpoints as both scary and normal. The daughter of a Presbyterian pastor, Awad has lived her whole life under Israeli occupation—a term used to describe Israel’s military control of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, areas that would constitute a future Palestinian state.

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Death and bombs have upper hand in Gaza-Catholic priest

Death and bombs have upper hand in Gaza-Catholic priest

Story by VRG

Death and bombs have upper hand in Gaza-Catholic priest© Provided by ANSA

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 19 - Father Gabriel Romanelli, the priest of the Catholic Holy Family parish in Gaza, spoke of the death and destruction taking place in the enclave on Friday in a video message transmitted in Naples Cathedral for the feast of the city's patron, Saint Januarius (San Gennaro). "The situation continues to be very serious throughout the Gaza Strip with the bombings," he said. "A war situation continues and the death that has already taken away tens of thousands of people continues: more than 18,000 children have been killed and the hostages still have not experienced the right to live in freedom, the wounded and the sick still have no possibility of treatment because the hospital lacks everything. The weapons have taken over." Romanelli said that he was staying put after Israel launched its offensive to take control of Gaza City on Tuesday, when the Vatican said Pope Leo XIV had telephoned him to express his "concern" and assure him of his "prayer and closeness". Romanelli was among several wounded in a strike by Israeli forces on the Holy Family Catholic Church that killed three people in July. Before his death in April, Pope Francis had spoken by phone nearly every day with Romanelli to check up on the Gaza parish following the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023. (ANSA).

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Pope Leo sets Friday as day of prayer and fasting for peace in Ukraine and the Holy Land

 
Vatican Dispatch

by Gerard O’Connell

August 20, 2025

Pope Leo XIV talks to visitors during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican Aug. 20, 2025. Credit: CNS photo/Lola Gomez

Deeply concerned at the ongoing wars and killing in the Holy Land and Ukraine and anxious for peace efforts to succeed, Pope Leo XIV has called on believers worldwide to observe this Friday, Aug. 22, the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of Peace, as a special day of prayer and fasting for peace in the Holy Land, Ukraine and other regions of the world that are “wounded by wars.”

He issued his appeal at the end of his public audience in the Vatican on Wednesday, Aug. 20, as efforts are underway to bring a ceasefire in Gaza and broker a peace accord between Ukraine and Russia.

Addressing thousands of pilgrims from many countries, including the United States, gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the pope said that “Mary is the Mother of believers here on earth, and is also invoked as Queen of Peace, while our earth continues to be wounded by wars in the Holy Land, in Ukraine, and in many other regions of the world.”

“I invite all the faithful to devote the day of August 22 to fasting and prayer, imploring the Lord to grant us peace and justice, and to dry the tears of those who suffer as a result of the ongoing armed conflicts. Mary, Queen of Peace, intercede so that peoples may find the path to peace,” the pope said