Palestinians walk amid the destruction in the Al Matahin and Al Qarara areas in northern Khan Younis early this year. Photo: UNRWA / Ashraf Amra
The UK International Development Minister Anneliese Dodds has met with UN agencies and Palestinian officials in Cairo today to discuss the war in Gaza on a three-day visit to the region.
The Foreign Office also says it will give £19m ($37m) in funding for Gaza with £12m ($23.4m) earmarked for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and World Food Program (WFP).
Dodds is due to travel to the Occupied Territories and Israel to inspect the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) at a refugee camp in the West Bank.
She will announce £7m ($13.6m) in new funding for UNRWA’s Flash Humanitarian Appeal for Gaza to deliver essential services as winter adds to the misery.
She will also meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Dr. Mohammad Mustafa and Minister of Planning and International Co-operation Dr. Wael Zakout.
“The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. Gazans are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter,” she says.
“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 minister will also confirm the UK has given £6m ($11.7m) each to the WFP and OCHA pooled humanitarian funds. This will allow the WFP to buy 4465 metric tonnes of fortified wheat flour, enough to feed more than 451,000 people across Gaza for one month.
Dodds will also visit a community in West Bank subject to settler violence which is at risk of demolition.
She will then move onto Israel for meetings and is expected to ask that country to ease restrictions on getting aid into Gaza and a lasting peace.
She will also meet the families of UK and UK-linked hostages in Israel.
- Meanwhile, Israeli strikes reportedly killed at least 15 people in Gaza on Sunday as they kept up their bombardments, overseas media agencies report.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 44,300 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave’s population, Gaza officials say.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023; they killed about 1200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages, say Israeli officials.
