Summary
- UK pledges extra £8.5m UN aid for Gaza.
- Support to provide food, water, and fuel.
- Urges Israel to allow aid access.
- Part of UK’s £101m Palestinian territories budget.
- Follows Israel’s plan to expand Gaza operations.
The funds would "help address urgent needs" in Gaza, according to Development Minister Baroness Jenny Chapman, but only if Israel permitted the area to be "flooded with aid."
She said:
“It is unacceptable that so much aid is waiting at the border – the UK is ready to provide more through our partners, and we demand that the government of Israel allows more aid in safely and securely.
The insufficient amount of supplies getting through is causing appalling and chaotic scenes as desperate civilians try to access tiny amounts of aid.”
This year, the UK has committed £101 million to the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which will be disbursed through the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA has warned of "significant impediments and other delays" to UN aid activities, challenges in obtaining water during a severe heatwave, and widespread hunger among Gaza's 2.1 million residents.
Following his condemnation of Israeli preparations to escalate the violence by occupying Gaza City alongside his counterparts from Australia, Italy, Germany, and New Zealand, Foreign Secretary David Lammy made the declaration for the United Kingdom.
Israel will pursue "the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip," "Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip," and "the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority," according to a statement released Friday by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The plans "risk violating international law," according to the foreign ministers' joint statement, and "any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law."
They added:
“We are united in our commitment to the implementation of a negotiated two-state solution as the only way to guarantee that both Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace, security, and dignity.
A political resolution based on a negotiated two-state solution requires the total demilitarisation of Hamas and its complete exclusion from any form of governance in the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian Authority must have a central role.”
On Saturday, the foreign ministers of Austria, Canada, France and Norway, along with the EU’s high representative for international affairs, added their names to the declaration.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer demanded "a ceasefire, a surge in humanitarian aid, the release of all hostages by Hamas, and a negotiated solution," calling Israel's objectives "wrong."
The Saturday UN Security Council meeting to consider Israel's plan has been rescheduled until Sunday at approximately 3 p.m. UK time.
How will the UK’s additional aid impact Gaza’s humanitarian situation?
The UK is funding food assistance programs, water and sanitation services, and maternal and children’s healthcare. This includes support for two UK-Med field hospitals in Gaza, which have treated over 500,000 patients during the conflict, providing life-saving medical care amid extremely difficult conditions.
The aid package helps deliver emergency food, shelter, and other essential services for over 2 million people through partners like the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which also ensures water provision reaching up to 600,000 people monthly across Gaza.
The UK aid is critical in mitigating starvation risk and improving living conditions for civilians.