Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Lord Callanan Excerpts

Tuesday 13th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

My noble friend says that there is another scheme in place; I am not sure that there is. There are discussions about it, but I have seen no details. There cannot be any aid mechanism that does not have delivering humanitarian aid as its sole priority. It cannot deliver political or military objectives; it is there to help vulnerable civilians. That will be the priority. If there is not action almost immediately, more people will die. Women and children in Gaza face loss of life now. The figure that one in five people in Gaza faces starvation is horrendous. Yes, the hostages must be released, we must get aid into Gaza and that ceasefire must take place. Only then can we look at a longer timespan for peace in the region.

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

My Lords, one of the first things this Government did on coming into office was resume funding for UNRWA, which was suspended by the previous Government. This followed proven allegations that UNRWA employees were members of Hamas and participated in the 7 October massacre. Nobody disagrees with the idea that aid should get through to those who need it, but there are also proven allegations that Hamas has been stealing, diverting and hijacking that aid. Can the Minister assure the House that no British taxpayer’s aid has been diverted to Hamas?

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

My Lords, yes, we resumed funding to UNRWA for the very purpose of having people with knowledge and expertise on the ground to get aid in as quickly as possible to save lives. I said at the very beginning that, for all UK-funded aid, we look at every possible mechanism to ensure that it gets to where it is needed, which is to the most vulnerable. We will always do that, and we will do everything we can to ensure that.