Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the health situation in Gaza; and how much financial assistance they intend to provide to that region to meet any health-related need.

The UK remains concerned about the ongoing humanitarian situation in Gaza and the impact of COVID-19 on an already fragile healthcare system. We are pleased that the OPTs will be among the first to benefit from the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) - the international initiative to support global equitable access to vaccines, with delivery of a first batch of more than 37,000 doses of the of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine anticipated in mid-February.

The UK was one of the first donors to provide funding to support the health and humanitarian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the OPTs. We have provided £1.25m funding (WHO with £630,000 and UNICEF with £620,000) to purchase and co-ordinate delivery of medical equipment, treat critical care patients, train frontline health workers and scale up laboratory testing capacity - mainly in Gaza. The FCDO is currently running a prioritisation exercise across all its programmes, to ensure that every pound we spend goes as far as possible. The Foreign Secretary will communicate the outcome shortly.