Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Danny Beales and Anneliese Dodds(3 weeks, 1 day ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Minister for Development (Anneliese Dodds)
The scale of humanitarian suffering in Gaza is catastrophic and unacceptable. The UK condemns Israel’s restrictions on aid in the strongest terms. This is a man-made crisis, and Israel must act immediately to address it.
Danny Beales
The aid agencies I have spoken to are particularly concerned about access to medical facilities and critical shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, particularly northern Gaza. In the light of that, what steps are the Government taking to get additional medical supplies to Gaza for both Palestinians and Israeli hostages in desperate humanitarian situations?
Anneliese Dodds
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this incredibly important issue. In December, I saw for myself in Jordan how medical aid had been blocked from entering Gaza. As I have said before, the position that the UK Government have articulated at every possible juncture is that restrictions on lifesaving aid must end. The UK continues to provide core healthcare relief items, and has provided 76,000 wound care kits, 1.3 million items of medicine, and critical funding for UK-Med to run its field hospitals in Gaza.