Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of food insecurity in Gaza in the context of the covid-19 pandemic.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) in OPTs has exacerbated the humanitarian and food insecurity situation. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, food insecurity, driven by high poverty and unemployment, affected 1.6 million Palestinians. Latest projections from the World Food Programme show an increase to 2 million Palestinians now food insecure - 40% of the population in OPTs.

To support the humanitarian situation in the OPTs, we are providing £2.5million to the World Food Programme to provide food and cash assistance to the most vulnerable Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza. We have also contributed £1 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's Emergency Appeal in the OPTs which will help provide emergency food to over one million food-insecure refugees in Gaza.