Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the security situation in the West Bank, in the context of reports of Palestinian Authority arrests of Palestinians with alleged links to Hamas.

We continue to closely monitor the security situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The UK continues to provide the Palestinian Authority (PA) with professional support in helping develop its security institutions. This provision includes training and other technical assistance to the PA Ministry of Interior and PA Security Forces (PASF), to support the development of capable, responsible security forces that respect human rights and are accountable to the Palestinian people.