Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the statement by World Food Programme's Palestine Country Director of 4 March 2024 on the need for an aid corridor to northern Gaza.

There is a desperate need for increased humanitarian support to Gaza. We have trebled our aid commitment this financial year and we will continue to support the United Nations World Food Programme to deliver humanitarian aid. We have been clear that Israel must take concrete steps, working with other partners including the UN and Egypt, to significantly increase the flow of aid across Gaza including allowing prolonged humanitarian pauses and opening more routes into Gaza.

We need Israel to ensure the UN has the people, vehicles, equipment and fuel to distribute aid safely across Gaza, and to open the Erez Crossing to allow direct access to the north of Gaza.

We continue to call for an immediate pause to get aid in and hostages out, then progress towards a sustainable, permanent ceasefire, without a return to destruction, fighting and loss of life.