UK announces more aid for Gaza during Jordan trip

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

A British minister has called for peace and security in the Middle East and will announce £6m in humanitarian aid for Gaza as part of her first visit to the region.

Anneliese Dodds, the International Development Minister, is to pledge a package of food, water, health, education and well-being support for Gazans during a trip to Jordan.

Ms Dodds, a long-serving Labour MP, will also visit a World Food Programme depot, which plays a key role in the delivery of aid to Gaza.

She will meet key Jordanian ministers to discuss how the UK and both countries can work together on brokering a peace in the Israel-Hamas conflict, as well as quelling other regional tensions.

Jordanian Minister of Finance, Mohamad Al Ississ, and the Foreign Ministry’s secretary general, Majid Al-Qatarneh will meet Ms Dodds as part of the discussions.

She will also repeat calls for British nationals to leave Lebanon now amid continuing tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

Ms Dodds said that “now is the time for calm, if we are to achieve lasting peace and stability in the Middle East”, adding that it was in no one’s interests for tensions to escalate further.

Humanitarian aid for Gaza loaded onto an RAF aircraft earlier this year. Reuters

UK funding will support the vaccination and immunisation of more than 20,000 children, provide more than 8,000 school-aged children with recreational activities to boost their well-being and help more than 55,000 people in Gaza access clean water and sanitation.

Ms Dodds added: “We are seeing the humanitarian impact of conflict on Gazans. This new UK support will provide a lifeline for vulnerable families, giving them access to basic food and water during a desperate time.”

Separately, the UK is also announcing today it is allocating £14 million to support Syrian refugees currently living in the Zaatari refugee camp on the Jordan-Syria border.

The funding will be delivered in September this year, with £7 million going to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the same amount to the World Food Programme. Jordan is currently home to over 3 million refugees, many of them from neighbouring Syria.

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Zakat definitions

Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.

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