UN delivers Japanese emergency aid to Palestinians

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The UN World Food Program is in the midst of distributing 2,200 tons (2,000 metric tons) of wheat flour to 300,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank, the WFP said Monday. The flour is part of a US$1.4 million (euro1.1 million) donation from Japan aimed at feeding a population that lost most access to funds after Israel and Western donor governments responded to the Hamas election victory by cutting off aid. The UN said many impoverished Gaza families are now living on only one meal a day. "The people receiving the food ration have no money left to buy even basic commodities and have had to resort to negative coping measures that include selling their assets," Arnold Vercken, WFP's director in the occupied territories, said in a release.