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 implications for his policies of the adequacy of the (a) capacity of (i) hospitals and (ii) primary health care centres and (b) availability of (i) medicine and (ii) basic medical supplies in Gaza.

We remain gravely concerned about the deteriorating health provision in Gaza, particularly in the north. It is unacceptable that northern Gaza now has no fully functioning hospitals. On 5 November, I reiterated this in a call with Israel's Ambassador to the UK. At a UK-chaired meeting of the UN Security Council on 12 November, Lord Collins expressed our condemnation of Israel's ongoing aid restrictions. The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary pressed Israel to increase aid flow in calls with their counterparts on 19 and 27 October. This Government is clear that Israel must also do much more to protect civilians, healthcare infrastructure and humanitarian workers, including the medics northern Gaza desperately needs. The UK is supporting the provision of essential healthcare to Palestinians, including through field hospitals operated by UK-Med in Gaza, and through support to the Egyptian health ministry to care for medically evacuated Palestinians.