Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 15 February (HL12870), what steps they have taken to ensure that Palestinians in territory occupied by Israel are able to access local healthcare facilities.

The UK regularly engages with both the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) on the matter of access to healthcare and will also continue to raise timely and appropriate access to COVID-19 vaccines. We remain concerned about restrictions on movement and access in Gaza, including the impact on those needing to travel outside of Gaza for medical treatment.

UK aid also plays a role in delivering essential healthcare services to Palestinians. The UK provided £20 million in the financial year 2020/21 to support the PA in delivering essential healthcare services to Palestinians. This funding will help the PA support its health workers who have been on the frontline battling COVID-19 and who deliver life-saving medical services. We also provided £1.25m to the World Health Organization and UNICEF to purchase and co-ordinate the delivery of medical equipment, treat critical care patients, train frontline public health personnel and scale up laboratory testing capacity.