Gaza: Healthcare System Support

Baroness Helic Excerpts

Thursday 16th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Helic (Con)]

My Lords, a recent report by Save the Children reveals that at least 14,100 children have been killed. Gaza now has the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. Additionally, at least 17,000 children—approximately 3% of Gaza’s population —have been orphaned.

For the last year, I have consistently supported Project Pure Hope, which, since November, has been trying to extend UK medical assistance to severely injured children in this country, at no cost to taxpayers, for a limited time and in limited numbers. So far, it has failed, and I have failed too. It has recently reached out again to the Cabinet Office but has not received a response. Can the Minister assure me that these initiatives will be considered?

There is a lot of passion and controversy about this issue. Can the Minister tell us whether international journalists will finally be allowed into Gaza so that they can bear witness to 13 hospitals, to the citizens of Gaza who have been cared for in hospitals on Israeli territory and so that we can finally get what could be considered an objective view of what exactly has been happening on the ground and the results of those actions?

I will use my last 20 seconds to ask the Minister to update us on the status of UNRWA and the UK Government’s current position on UNRWA being kept out.