Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the Israeli government’s handling of applications for permits for (a) patients, (b) companions and (c) health workers travelling in and out of the Palestinian Occupied Territories for medical treatment.

We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to end the restrictions on movement and access of essential healthcare workers, and Palestinians seeking medical services. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv regularly raises the importance of regularised access to healthcare with the Israeli authorities. The wounded and ill in Gaza and the West Bank should be able to access the urgent medical care they need.