Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the Oral Statement of the Minister of State of 29 January 2024, on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Official Report, columns 620-622, and with reference to the Government's pause in funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), announced on 27 January 2024, what assessment he has made of the capacity of (a) other UN agencies, (b) international NGOs and (c) UK NGOs to deliver aid previously delivered by UNRWA.

We remain committed to getting humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza who desperately need it. Our commitment to trebling aid to Gaza still stands. The UK is providing £60 million in humanitarian assistance to support partners including the British Red Cross, UNICEF, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS) to respond to critical food, fuel, water, health, shelter and security needs in Gaza. We will continue to support and have supported the United Nations World Food Programme to deliver a new humanitarian land corridor from Jordan into Gaza. 750 tonnes of life-saving food aid arrived in the first delivery and 315 tonnes in the second delivery. We have and will continue to support the Egyptian Red Crescent Society (ERCS). The ERCS has a long standing and trusted role as auxiliary to the Egyptian authorities in the humanitarian field. Egyptian Red Crescent is part of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies with whom FCDO has due diligence in place.