Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing his Department's humanitarian funding to Gaza.

The UK remains committed to respond to the humanitarian situation in Gaza and has called for both parties to respect International Humanitarian Law and minimise the impact on civilian casualties. Since 7 October, the UK Government has announced an additional £30 million of humanitarian aid to the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) and sent more than 51 tonnes of emergency relief. This funding will support the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and other trusted partners to respond to critical food, water, health, shelter and protection needs in Gaza. The UK is continuously assessing needs and advocating for access routes to be established into Gaza, for sufficient levels of humanitarian assistance to flow into Gaza and for humanitarian pauses to allow aid to be distributed within Gaza.

There is a robust framework in place for allocating Official Development Assistance (ODA), in accordance with UK strategic priorities against a challenging financial climate. Data on ODA spend in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is available on DevTracker and also in our Country Development Partnership Summary (https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/countries/PS). More than 80% of our ODA spend this year of UK support will be used to meet humanitarian need, or to provide vital health, education, and protection services for Palestinian Refugees.