GAZA — Hundreds of women and children protested cutbacks in a United Nations food-assistance program on Wednesday, the latest in a growing backlash by Palestinian refugees and their offspring in this forlorn coastal strip against the agency that for decades has provided them with nutrition, education and health services.

“People are getting poorer, and the agency’s directors nurture bellies,” they chanted outside the locked gates of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. “We are under siege!”

Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the agency, said that it was facing a $55 million budget shortfall this year. The cuts that led to the recent complaints and rallies by Gaza residents and politicians were part of a shifting of resources based on a re-evaluation of the population’s needs, he said.

About 9,500 families were removed from the food program, Mr. Hasna said, because their economic situations had improved, while 5,400 poorer families were added. An additional 4,000 had their benefits increased.