International community convene at Humanitarian Conference in Egypt to collaborate on boosting aid in Gaza
International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds will attend a humanitarian conference in Cairo today [Monday 2 December], meeting with international partners, to discuss how to urgently alleviate suffering in Gaza, as part of a three-day visit to the region.
The Minister will announce £19 million of funding for Gaza, including £12 million in funding to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and World Food Programme (WFP).
The UK has now committed £99 million to the OPTs this financial year, providing vital services to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank delivered through partner agencies. The UK’s humanitarian programme in Gaza has meant half a million people have received essential healthcare. 284,000 people have improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene services.
To demonstrate the UK’s ongoing commitment to achieving stability in the region and to discuss how to improve economic stability for all Palestinians, Minister Dodds will then travel to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.
The Minister will see first-hand the vital work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at a refugee camp in the West Bank. She will also highlight the £7m of new UK funding that will go to UNRWA’s Flash Humanitarian Appeal for Gaza. It will support the international response to deliver essential services such as food, shelter and healthcare as winter conditions add to the already dire humanitarian situation.
To underline UK support for the Palestinian Authority and their essential political and economic reform agenda, the Minister will meet with Palestinian Prime Minister, H.E. Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, and Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, H.E. Dr. Wael Zakout.
Development Minister Anneliese Dodds said: “The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Gazans are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter. The Cairo conference will be an opportunity to get leading voices in one room and put forward real-world solutions to the humanitarian crisis.
“The UK is committed to supporting the region’s most vulnerable communities, pledging additional funding for UNRWA, and to supporting the Palestinian Authority reforms.
“Israel must immediately act to ensure unimpeded aid access to Gaza. I will meet counterparts both in Israel and the OPTs to discuss the need to remove these impediments, bring about a ceasefire, free the hostages and find a lasting solution to the conflict.”
The Minister will also confirm the UK has provided £6 million each to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office for Coordinated Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) pooled humanitarian fund. This has gone towards lifesaving health, food, water, sanitation and protection services for Palestinians.
This year the UK contribution to WFP will enable it to procure 4,465 metric tons of fortified wheat flour, sufficient to cover the needs of more than 451,000 severely food insecure people across Gaza for one month.
Whilst in the OPTs, the Minister will also visit a community in Area C of the West Bank that is subject to settler violence and is at risk of demolition and displacement.
Minister Dodds will then arrive in Israel, holding meetings with Israeli representatives. She will call on Israel to remove impediments to getting aid into Gaza and discuss finding a lasting resolution to the conflict.
The Minister will also meet the families of UK and UK-linked hostages in Israel and will reiterate that the UK continues to exercise every possible diplomatic lever to see the hostages immediately and unconditionally released.
Concluding the visit, the Minister will highlight that it is in the long-term interests of the Israelis, Palestinians and the wider region to agree to a ceasefire deal urgently and bring this devastating conflict to an end.
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