The United Nations World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are due to release a report later this month warning that many families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have become "totally reliant on outside assistance" over the last year.

The UN agencies blame the increased dependence on outside assistance on the rising unemployment and poverty in the occupied Palestinian territories. This in turn they say is due to the "stagnation of trade" and the restrictions placed on funding to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas' victory in the Palestinian Legislative Elections in January 2006.

Based on statistics covering food security and socio-economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2006, the agencies state that "almost half of the population remains food insecure or is at risk of becoming food insecure".

According to the report, "84 percent of Gazans and 60 percent of West Bankers were found to be reducing their living expenditures by the end of 2006." Many Palestinians have been forced to sell off valuable assets such as land or tools, the agencies say, in order to purchase food.

“The poorest families are now living a meager existence totally reliant on assistance, with no electricity or heating and eating food prepared with water from bad sources. This is putting their long-term health at risk,” stressed Arnold Vercken, WFP’s Country Director in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The UN agencies are particularly worried that urban populations are also suffering, in addition to the traditionally vulnerable rural and refugee populations.

WFP's director recognizes that aid is not a sustainable answer. “Food assistance alone cannot prevent this decline – there also has to be economic growth which requires political dialogue and stability,” said Vercken, reported by UN News.

Restrictions on trade and movement have damaged possibilities of sustainable enterprise, the report states. Closures also have an immediate negative impact on the economy.

The WFP says they were originally providing 154,000 tons of food assistance to 135,500 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and 344,500 in the West Bank . However, since various restrictions were placed on international funding to the Palestinian Authority in January 2006, WFP responded by raising the number of beneficiaries from 480,000 to 600,000.