The World Food Program (WFP) announced Friday it had launched an emergency operation to help about 300,000 needy Palestinians hit by weeks of unrest and violence across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The agency is spending about 200,000 dollars (233,000 Euros) to get the operation going but hopes to get more funding from donors to support the three-month program.
WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume said the move was in response to an appeal by the Palestinian Authority's ministry of social affairs for immediate food aid for 200,000 families.
"Households whose livelihoods depend on employment in Israel have lost their jobs because the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been sealed off since the turmoil started in late September," she said.
WFP and UNRWA, a UN agency helping refugees in the region, are currently assessing what is needed, but WFP provisionally estimates it will need about 12,000 tons of food, she said.
The agency already has an ongoing program to help 104,000 special hardship cases, people such as the handicapped, old, widows or orphans, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"Contributions from donors for the ongoing program has been so far very slow," Berthiaume said. WFP has so far received 1.4 million dollars of the 4.7 million needed – GENEVA (AFP)
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