“The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues, and we urge Israel to reverse its decision to expand military operations,” Jennifer Chapman said.
The UK will provide additional aid to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to support Gazan civilians, “but only if the Israeli government lets aid in,” the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said Saturday.
The additional funding will total £8.5 million and will be used to provide food, water, and fuel to the areas of Gaza in the most acute need, Minister for International Development Jennifer Chapman said.
She said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was catastrophic and condemned the Israeli security cabinet’s approval of a plan to escalate the Gaza offensive.
“The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza continues, and we urge Israel to reverse its decision to expand military operations,” she said.
“It is unacceptable that so much aid is waiting at the border,” Chapman said. “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.”
Palestinians walk to collect aid supplies from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 29, 2025 (credit: REUTERS/Hatem Khaled)
The UK is the largest donor to OCHA in 2025, and the additional money will form part of the UK’s £101m. budget for Palestine for this financial year, of which £60m. is allocated for humanitarian support, the FCDO said.
Foreign Office fails to release report on Israel’s genocide risk
The UK Foreign Office reportedly has failed to adhere to a freedom of information (FOI) request made by Amnesty International to see a June 2024 internal assessment that there was no serious risk of Israel committing genocide in Gaza.
Amnesty International reportedly attempted to access the assessment, but the FCDO did not respond within the mandated one-month period. It also apparently refused to disclose if an updated assessment of the risk of genocide has been made.
Amnesty International lodged a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office last year.
Nevertheless, The Jerusalem Post found another FOI request made by Amnesty International on June 19, 2025, which has not been responded to. This FOI request asked to view the assessment and know when the most recent assessment was carried out and whether any further ones will be done in 2025.
This was first reported by The Guardian on Friday, but the existence of the risk of genocide assessment was mentioned in the UK government’s argument in Al-Haq v Secretary of State for Business and Trade [F-35] case earlier this year. While excerpts of the dossier were mentioned during the F-35 case, Amnesty International is seeking to see it in its entirety.
Al-Haq, a group based in the West Bank, took legal action against the UK Department for Business and Trade over its decision to exempt F-35 parts when it suspended some arms export licenses last year, claiming that the parts were used to breach international humanitarian law.
The decision was lawful, London’s High Court ruled in June.
Inside the case filing, the government said it had carried out the assessment via the Export Control Joint Unit in the FCDO on June 11, 2024.
There was “no serious risk of genocide occurring,” the government concluded.
One excerpt said the “findings that Israel is not committed to comply with IHL does not necessarily indicate that it is harboring genocidal intent. No evidence has been seen that Israel is deliberately targeting civilian women or children. There is also evidence of Israel making efforts to limit incidental harm to civilians.”
“There is no evidence of a high-level strategic decision, passed down through military chains of command, like that which was in evidence for the massacre and deportations at Srebrenica that were found in the Bosnian genocide case to constitute genocide (the ICJ’s only finding of genocide to date),” the government said.
As of press time, the FCDO had not yet responded to a Post request for comment.