Gaza, ALRAY - Palestinian children have called on the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to backtrack on its decision to suspend its food aid to 200,000 people in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Speaking at a sit-in held in front of the UN Development Program (UNDP) headquarters in Gaza City, Palestinian child, Mohammad Taha, said the message that was sent to thousands of families informing them that their monthly food vouchers had been cut off was shocking as "they suffer from poverty, unemployment, and food insecurity."

Taha, who was speaking on behalf of the other children attending the event, demanded an end to such measures, calling for increasing the value of the voucher provided per person in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Taha, whose family used to receive food assistance from the WFP, urged the UN and international NGOs to provide Palestinian children with a decent and dignified life.

Holding the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the humanitarian crisis in the blockaded Gaza Strip, Taha called for breaking international silence over the Israeli occupation's seizure of Palestinian natural resources.

On May 11, the WFP announced that it would cut its food assistance to 200,000 people – almost 60 per cent of the beneficiaries in Palestine – by June due to a lack of funding.

By August, the UN body will be forced to suspend operations in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, according to a statement issued in May.

According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, 61.6 per cent of Gaza's residents, approximately 2.3 million people, live in poverty due to the restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation on the impoverished enclave since 2007.

By the end of 2022, the unemployment rate reached about 47 per cent in the besieged Gaza Strip.