EXTRA government humanitarian aid to help Palestinians survive the “incomprehensible horror” they are facing has been condemned as “pitiful” by the chair of a cross-party Commons committee.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Monday that British humanitarian aid to Palestine would increase by a third, amounting to £10 million.

Labour MP Sarah Champion, chair of the cross-party international development committee (IDC), said: “The additional £10m in humanitarian aid the UK is offering for civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories is pitiful.

“It falls far short of such support the UK provided a few years ago.”

She dismissed as “not credible” a suggestion from Foreign Secretary James Cleverley that people in Gaza could use the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.

The committee previously recommended a global strategy to support countries hosting long-term refugees and said the crisis in the Middle East underscores the need for this.

But the government rejected the recommendation.

Ms Champion said: “The incomprehensible horror unfolding in Israel and Gaza highlights the absolute necessity that the UK government rethink its position on the one recommendation in our report on long-term refugees that it did not fully accept.

“That the UK should advocate for the creation of a new global strategy to provide support for countries that host refugees, with so many countries hosting refugees for decades.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are a long-standing and significant donor of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, last year contributing £13m to UN agency UNRWA, who in 2022 reached 1.1m people in Gaza and 58,000 people in West Bank with emergency food.”