The @WFP got the Nobel Peace Prize. The US is the WFP’s biggest donor. But there's one WFP program that Trump Admin stopped funding: food to Palestinians. WFP stopped giving food aid to 26,000 people in the West Bank. “Their lives have deteriorated,” WFP local director tells NPR. https://twitter.com/NobelPrize/status/1314490999482265601

The US used to provide 45% of the budget for WFP’s program in the West Bank and Gaza. Now it's zero.
Since 2018, the US cut all humanitarian aid for Palestinians. Why? Trump tweeted: "We pay the Palestinians hundreds of millions of dollars a year and we get no appreciation"

The US funding cut also forced the World Food Programme to temporarily reduce support for 170,000 other Palestinians in the first half of 2019, until Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. filled the funding gap the US left, the WFP says. The WFP helped 343,434 Palestinians last year.

The WFP says 700,000 Palestinians live in poverty - this number not including Palestinian refugees - and the Israeli Palestinian political conflict limits their access to employment, so many cannot afford nutritious food, and the COVID economic crisis has made things worse.

“The US is the biggest funder to WFP, and it supports us all over the world. It’s particularly important in places like Afghanistan, Somalia, South Sudan, Yemen, Syria... Palestine is a little different because of the political situation here," says WFP's Stephen Kearney.

"If we can reach a political solution, then the food insecurity issue gets solved. Until then, we will have food insecurity, as people can’t get to work," Kearney said.

He's excited about the Nobel Peace Prize: "I feel so happy…we didn’t even know we were up for award.”