UK
UK announces more aid to Gaza
Foreign Secretary presses demands for a ceasefire amid humanitarian ‘catastrophe’
August 31, 2025 11:34
Foreign Secretary presses demands for a ceasefire amid humanitarian ‘catastrophe’
August 31, 2025 11:34The UK has pledged additional aid to Gaza as Foreign Secretary David Lammy renewed calls on Israel to agree a ceasefire.
The £3m package is intended to help deploy midwives and provide emergency medical supplies to new mothers in the war-torn strip. The UK is also supporting delivery of menstrual hygiene kits for women and girls.
Lammy said, “The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, with famine in Gaza City and women and girls bearing the brunt of the suffering. The UK is doing all we can to improve the situation but we remain crystal clear: for aid to have impact, Israel must ensure it is allowed in and delivered safely and securely to civilians in desperate need.”
With military strikes on healthcare centres and most hospitals no longer functioning at all, he said, “pregnant women will be extremely anxious about giving birth safely.”
So far this year the UK has offered £60 million of humanitarian aid to what it referred to as “the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
The government has threatened to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN’s General Assembly meeting next month unless Israel accepts a ceasefire.
Lammy said the new funding – channelled through the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) – would “help improve midwifery provisions and make giving birth safer. It is critical to improving the situation for mothers and their new-born babies.
“But this funding can only have maximum impact if the government of Israel allows it. Israel must ensure protection of civilians including healthcare staff and health infrastructure, and enable the delivery of life-saving medicines, medical equipment and healthcare supplies into Gaza.”
He added: “We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, a surge in aid and a framework to deliver long-term peace.”
In a statement released by the Foreign Office, Laila Baker, UNFPA’s Arab states regional director, said: “Women and girls are enduring increasingly horrific conditions in Gaza – with widespread malnutrition and disease putting the lives of pregnant and breastfeeding women and their babies at particular risk.”
She added “With one in five babies in Gaza born prematurely or underweight, and maternal and neonatal services collapsing from fuel and supply shortages, UNFPA also reiterates its urgent call for unimpeded, sustained and demilitarised humanitarian aid into the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
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