Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports by Medical Aid for Palestinians that Palestinians are prevented from accessing life-saving medical equipment and supplies by Israeli forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Gaza.

We ask Israel to allow access into and out of Gaza and the West Bank, in accordance with international humanitarian law, for humanitarian actors, reconstruction materials and those, including Palestinians, travelling for medical purposes. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv regularly raises the importance of this issue with the Israeli authorities. We strongly condemn all forms of violence and incitement to violence directed towards healthcare workers. The wounded and critically ill in Gaza and the West Bank should be able to access the urgent medical care they need. The UK government welcomes any effort to cooperate between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, including in the healthcare sector. When the Foreign Secretary wrote to his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen on 10 May, he asked him to allow humanitarian access to Gaza following recent Israeli airstrikes there.