Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Defence

My hon. Friend is right to refer to this as a crisis, except for the fact that, given it has been going on for so long—since the war of last December and January of this year—that the word can become cheapened or devalued. My hon. Friend is right to raise that issue, however, and we continue to raise it. The number of aid trucks being allowed in has risen since early spring, but it remains below the United Nations level—500 trucks a day is, I think, the estimate of what is necessary. My hon. Friend makes an important point, because the danger is that the only people who gain from the current policy are Hamas.