Gaza: Humanitarian Aid

Lord Harper Excerpts

Wednesday 4th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, there are trucks of aid and professionals with the ability to get that aid where it needs to go, without the use of violence and at speed. Whether or not that is done through corridors, as the noble Lord suggested, I would leave to the judgment of those people on the ground, whom I have met; they are able to do that task and to do it very quickly. He is absolutely right that what is happening now is unconscionable and is failing. It is leading to a huge amount of distress and will lead, unless something is done quickly, to further death. All we can do is make our position clear, publicly and privately, to the Israeli Government. They have made a choice about this: this is not a natural disaster; this is a decision being made to prevent the adequate distribution of aid. We disagree with it, and we believe that the position should change.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, I draw attention to my declaration in the register of interests. I have recently returned from a visit to Israel last week that was organised and paid for by Conservative Friends of Israel, where we were able to look at the impact of the events of 7 October, which is, of course, the context in which all this is taking place, and have a briefing about aid. The Israeli Government have wanted to move to a new model because under the previous model Hamas intercepted significant quantities of aid, used that aid to control the Gazan population and to sell it to raise money for weapons? Can she set out what the British Government are able to do, given their experience in humanitarian relief, to assist the Israeli Government in ensuring that aid gets to the people of Gaza but without funding Hamas terrorist atrocities?