NEW YORK, March 4, 2007, (WAFA)-World Food Program(WFP) said Sunday that eighty percent of Gazans receive food aid from the WFP or from UNRWA.

WFP spokesperson Kirstie Campbell said that the dozens of laborers who used to cross into Israel every day to work also found themselves unemployed as a result of laws prohibiting them from working and the construction of the separation barrier.

WFP officials refer to the people affected by these developments "the new poor," former members of the middle class who lost their source of income. Some were able to find other jobs, but the case of the Hassein family is particularly complex.

The father, Yusuf, suffered a mild stroke about three years ago that affects his daily functioning. There is no unemployment insurance, his extended family is unable to help out with either money or food, and the family is completely dependent on the WFP.

The Hasseins are not an exception in the territories. According to WFP figures, 34 percent of residents of the territories suffer from food insecurity, which the UN food agency defines as the inability of a household to produce and/or access at all times the minimum food needed for a healthy and active life. In the Gaza Strip, where four out of five Palestinians are below the poverty line, the figure is 54 percent.

"We are seeing more and more children who come to school without eating breakfast and without the ability to buy breakfast," Campbell said. "Many families can only give their children one meal a day. The problem is particularly severe in Gaza, but it occurs in the West Bank as well."

Campbell said that while in the past food shortages were generally limited to rural areas, it now affects urban residents, traders and people who own small workshops, among others.

"The Palestinian economy is becoming an 'island' economy," Campbell explains, "small areas where residents trade among themselves." The WFP defines food insecurity as income of less than $1.60 per person per day, since this is the minimum required to obtain a nutritionally adequate diet. In Gaza, many people eat nothing but tomatoes and bread. Their neighbors and relatives may try to help, but it is not enough.

M.H.(09:46 P)(07:46 GMT)