UK announces more aid for Gaza as Israel plans war expansion
London
The United Kingdom has announced another £8.5mn ($11.4mn) for UN aid to Gaza after Israel unveiled plans to expand its military operations in the territory.
Development Minister Jenny Chapman said the money would 'help address urgent need' in Gaza, but only if Israel allowed the region 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,' she added. The money, to be delivered through the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), is part of a £101mn UK commitment to the Occupied Palestinian Territories this year.
OCHA has warned of widespread hunger among Gaza's 2.1 million people, along with difficulties accessing water amid a severe heatwave and 'significant impediments and other delays' to UN efforts to provide aid. The UK's announcement comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy joined his counterparts from Australia, Italy, Germany and New Zealand to condemn Israeli plans to escalate the conflict by taking over Gaza City.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Friday that Israel would seek 'the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip,' as well as 'Israeli security control in the Gaza Strip' and 'the establishment of an alternative civil administration that is neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority.' In their joint statement, the foreign ministers said the plans 'risk violating international law' and 'any attempts at annexation or of settlement extension violate international law.'
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