Gaza: Humanitarian Situation
Debate between Baroness Chapman of Darlington and Baroness Helic(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Baroness Helic
To ask His Majesty’s Government (1) what representations they are making to the Government of Israel and (2) what steps they plan to take to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, following reports of infant deaths due to hypothermia and starvation.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Baroness Chapman of Darlington) (Lab)
I thank the noble Baroness for her Question. The suffering that we are seeing in Gaza is intolerable. The UK is committed to alleviating this. We announced £112 million for the Occupied Palestinian Territories this financial year, while also supporting Palestinians in the wider region. Our support has provided 52,900 shelter items, 76,000 wound care kits, 1.3 million items of medicine and 500 warm children’s clothing kits. The UK continues to press the Government of Israel to better protect civilians in Gaza. In November the Foreign Secretary wrote, with his French and German counterparts, to urge Israel to ensure sufficient winter preparations and supplies.
Baroness Helic (Con)
My Lords, I join other noble Lords in paying tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson.
A year ago, on 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice issued the first set of provisional orders in the case of the application of the genocide convention in the Gaza Strip. Less than a year later, nowhere are civilians in Gaza safe. Everything and everybody is a target. Schools, hospitals, civilian infrastructure, aid workers, journalists, medics and civilians are all reduced to rubble and corpses. North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months and south Gaza is under constant bombardment. Today, an eighth baby froze to death.
According to Tom Fletcher, the head of OCHA, the Israeli authorities have denied over 100 requests to access north Gaza since 6 October. With the fear of polio spreading to the region, the UN was able to respond and vaccinate 600,000 children twice. Now we see babies dying of cold when blankets and shelter, and all the aid that we have paid for, have been sat waiting to enter Gaza for six months. Removing UNRWA, the largest aid organisation on the ground, is another step in the wrong direction.
The only way anything can change is with political will. Given that nothing the UK has done so far has shifted the dynamic on the ground and prevented this catastrophic loss of life, what will now change? What will HMG do to defend international humanitarian law, maintain UNRWA’s vital work and secure the basic protection of civilians in Gaza, including humanitarian access and the release of hostages?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
I am grateful to the noble Baroness. We were quick to reinstate aid to UNRWA. She is quite correct to point out that October and November 2024 were the worst months since 2023 for access to Gaza. The success—if I can put it that way—of the polio vaccination programme shows that access can be achieved. When it can be facilitated, it can be used to good effect and can save lives. We urge the Israeli Government to allow the international community, we think through UNRWA—if there is another viable way of doing this, we would be interested, but our assessment is that there is no viable alternative to UNRWA at this time—to have that access, so that the protection from the weather, the food and the medicine that are so urgently needed can be provided.
International Aid Workers: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Debate between Baroness Chapman of Darlington and Baroness Helic(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
My Lords, I am very careful about the use of the word “genocide”. It is not a word that should be bandied around by any politician. Genocide is for a court to determine. That has not happened, and unless and until it does, I will not refer to this as genocide.
Baroness Helic (Con)
My Lords, there are numerous independent reports of sexual violence being perpetrated against imprisoned Palestinian aid workers and medics. The worst, tragic reported case is of a male orthopaedic surgeon who was allegedly raped to death. What specific actions have our Government taken to ensure that reported cases are documented and preserved in accordance with the Government’s International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, with the purpose of supporting future investigations into sexual violence as a crime under international law?
Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)
The noble Baroness is right to highlight what has been happening to health workers and aid workers. Almost 1,000 health workers and around 300 aid workers have been killed since October 2023. It is important that what happens is documented and recorded for the future, as she says.