Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent assessment she has made of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The UN estimates that around 30,000 internally displaced people are still sheltering in UNRWA schools and that more than 100,000 people have been made permanently homeless. As winter approaches, the needs of these displaced people will become more acute. A health assessment led by the World Health Organisation indicates ongoing critical shortages of essential medicines and medical equipment. The UN also reports that food insecurity – already high in the Gaza Strip at 57 per cent– is likely to have significantly increased, and that significant constraints still impair the delivery of water and sanitation services.