Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories

David Mundell Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds]

This is a critical issue. Of course, we need the ceasefire to be held to. As I said, we have to move through phase 1 to phases 2 and 3, but we also need to ensure that there is day-after-next-phase planning in Gaza, so that we can see the building up of Gaza’s governance and security institutions and, of course, infrastructure, as my hon. Friend rightly stated. We are clear that Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction must be Palestinian-led. We have supported the Palestinian Authority in particular on this. I am very proud that UK expertise has been supporting that work, so that this important reconstruction can continue at the required pace and scale, but we need to see the ceasefire holding to enable that.

[David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) (Con)]

What practical support are the Government giving to Egypt now that the Rafah crossing has reopened for medical emergencies? When that happened previously, it put enormous pressure on the Egyptian health service and caused some civil unrest in Egypt. As the right hon. Lady knows, Egypt is also under pressure on its southern border due to the conflict in Sudan. Does she agree that support for Egypt at this critical time is very important?

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for underlining Egypt’s role in this incredibly difficult humanitarian situation, and particularly in relation to medical evacuees from Gaza. He is also right to underline that Egypt is now housing many refugees from Sudan too.

I reassure the right hon. Gentleman that the UK is seeking to work with Egypt. We have supported the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population with £1 million, delivered through WHO Egypt, to support medically evacuated Palestinians from Gaza. We are exploring further support for the Egyptian system, which is gearing up to receive large numbers of medical evacuees.