Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the statement by the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory published on 4 December 2023.

We welcomed the recent pauses in fighting as an opportunity to get hostages out and we will continue to get aid into Gaza on a sustained basis now that the truce has ended. The Foreign Secretary has announced £60 million of British aid in addition to our planned financial assistance, which means vital supplies can enter Gaza and reach those who have suffered there so much. Alleviating the suffering is our top priority, and the uplift in funding will triple the UK's existing aid budget for the Occupied Palestinian Territories this financial year. To date the UK has delivered 74 tonnes of aid but there is still more to do, the number of casualties are too high and we are calling on Hamas to release each and every hostage they have kidnapped. We continue to press both at the UN and directly with Israel for unhindered humanitarian access and substantive, repeated humanitarian pauses that allow aid to enter and British nationals to leave.