Food insecurity has become a major issue in Gaza and the West Bank, not because food is hard to find, but because hard-pressed families cannot afford to buy it.

That’s according to Stephen Kearney, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) Representative and WFP Country Director in Palestine.

United States cuts in funding for the UN relief agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNWRA, is having a major humanitarian impact, and WFP is currently providing food-cash assistance to the most vulnerable, who are earning less than a dollar a day.

Mr. Kearney spoke with UN News’s Arabic chief, Reem Abaza, when she was in Jerusalem on a recent reporting trip to the region, and began by outlining what the agency needs on behalf of hungry and malnourished Palestinians, for the year ahead.