Israel Says Commercial Shipments to Gaza Will Gradually Resume as WFP Cuts Food Aid
Israel announced on October 19, 2026 that commercial shipments into Gaza would gradually resume, after halting them on October 14 in a dispute over payments for goods entering the enclave. In the same week, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said funding shortages had forced it to cut food assistance in Gaza sharply.
The dispute centred on a demand that merchants pay 10,000 shekels ($3,225) per truck to bring goods into Gaza. Reuters reported on October 15 that commercial goods had stopped entering after Gazan merchants suspended truck coordination. COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates the entry of goods and aid into Gaza, said the suspension would cut the total number of trucks entering, since those trucks carry both humanitarian and commercial cargo.
COGAT said merchants had reported that Hamas withdrew the 10,000-shekel demand. Hamas described the payment as a voluntary contribution to a fund supporting people affected by the war. The two accounts differ on what the money was for, and the announcement on October 19 did not resolve that difference.
On the food side, WFP said it had cut food rations in Gaza by half. Families now receive one food parcel instead of two, along with a smaller bag of wheat flour. The number of people WFP supports fell from 1.6 million in September 2026 to 1.1 million in October, and its daily hot meals were reduced from 250,000 to 150,000.
Al Jazeera reported that WFP said about 1.4 million people in Gaza, roughly two-thirds of the population, faced acute food insecurity at crisis levels or worse.
The hunger situation has a recent history. Famine was declared in Gaza City in August 2025. In December 2025, the IPC, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a UN-backed system that grades hunger levels, said that the famine had receded after a ceasefire that had begun two months earlier.
