JERUSALEM (REUTERS) - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has ceased all its assistance to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a US official said on Friday (Feb 1).

"At the request of the Palestinian Authority, we have wound down certain projects and programmes funded with assistance under the authorities specified in ATCA in the West Bank and Gaza," the official said, referring to US legislation called the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act.

"All USAID assistance in the West Bank and Gaza has ceased," the official said in a statement to Reuters, adding that they were not currently taking steps to close the USAID mission.