The West Bank: Europe and the Arabs
The World Food Program has warned that escalating violence, arrests and movement restrictions in the West Bank are increasing hunger among Palestinians. He said that hundreds of thousands of them have lost their work permits in Israel and cannot leave the West Bank, while commercial activity inside the occupied Palestinian territory is limited, which exposes the economy and the humanitarian situation to the risk of further deterioration. According to what was stated in the daily news bulletin of the United Nations, which added that since the beginning of the escalation Last in October 2023, the situation in the West Bank witnessed a political and economic deterioration. The escalation of hostilities resulted in an increase in the Israeli military presence, which led to the imposition of movement restrictions and the establishment of additional checkpoints, which significantly limited freedom of movement.

The current situation has frightening negative economic effects - according to the United Nations World Food Programme - as a huge number of workers have lost their jobs, companies have been forced to close or downsize, while the Palestinian Authority faces a severe funding shortage, which affects the salaries of civil servants.

The importance of increasing support
In the last three months of 2023, the gross domestic product of the State of Palestine decreased by 22 percent. This decline is attributed to various factors, including closures in the West Bank and the layoffs of large numbers of Palestinian workers in Israel. The unemployment rate rose to 29 percent in this period, compared to only 13 percent in the previous three months.

In this context, the Deputy Country Director of the World Food Program in Palestine, Marika Guderian, said that the needs were already high before this current crisis and have now worsened significantly. She added: “There is a really urgent need to get more funding to help these people in need and who are really suffering because of the impact of the Gaza war on the West Bank.”

Worsening harassment
According to preliminary assessments conducted by food security sector partners, food insecurity in the West Bank has risen from 350,000 people - about ten percent of the population - to an estimated 600,000 people since the outbreak of the current crisis. This number is expected to increase in the coming months, according to the programme, which reported that the largest number of people facing food insecurity are in Nablus and Hebron.

Muhammad Swardam, owner of a store in Hebron where beneficiaries can use electronic cash vouchers provided by the program. He says that since the outbreak of war in Gaza, the situation in the city has become much worse and harassment has increased dramatically. He explained: “For example, the curfew is lifted for the residents of Shuhada Street only two days a week, for one hour in the morning from seven to eight, and one hour in the evening from four to five. After that, people cannot return to their homes and will have to find "They have a place to sleep. If they miss the morning window, they won't be able to get out of their homes. They can only move once every three days."
Increasing restrictions on movement mean farmers in towns are unable to sell their produce, and buyers are unable to access markets. Food prices have risen dramatically in the West Bank, while unemployment and poverty rates are also rising.

Farmer Muhammad Abu Shusha from Jericho said that it is a tragedy that vegetables rot and are thrown away in the West Bank while people in Gaza “eat tree leaves and the international community is content with silence and watching.”

It is noteworthy that the World Food Program expanded its assistance to reach more than one hundred thousand additional vulnerable people throughout the West Bank through electronic vouchers in January, in addition to providing about three thousand workers from Gaza stranded in the West Bank with cash assistance. for one time.