PEOPLE in Gaza and the West Bank are to be supported by a further £500,000 of Scottish Government funding to provide humanitarian assistance.
The funding – which will support the delivery of healthcare, clean water, food, shelter, education and protection services – is in addition to £600,000 already provided last year that has assisted assisted approximately 2.4 million people across Gaza and the West Bank.
It comes as First Minister John Swinney prepares to meet with Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, later on Monday.
Swinney told The National: “In Gaza and the West Bank, civilians are still being killed by Israeli forces, families are still living in fear, and millions of people are still in urgent need of humanitarian support. The UN warns that the Israeli military has intensified its attacks in Gaza in recent days, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians – including women and children.
“This additional £500,000 contribution reflects the Scottish Government’s continued commitment to helping people affected by this humanitarian crisis.
"Through the Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund, the extra financial support that I am announcing today will help deliver vital assistance including food, healthcare, clean water, shelter and protection services, reaching people most in need while supporting local organisations working on the ground."
The Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund is managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and provides rapid, flexible funding to support emergency responses across Gaza and the West Bank.
The Israeli military has launched an aggressive crackdown in the occupied West Bank, storming several towns and villages and detaining hundreds of Palestinians in reaction to a shootout in a village near Nablus where four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed.
The “wide-scale military operation” across the West Bank ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intensified on Sunday as settlers began marauding through villages and attacking Palestinians, according to Al Jazeera.
Settlers tried to set two mosques on fire. At the newly-built Al-Rahma Mosque in the town of Qusra, they spray-painted slogans like “Jewish revenge” on the walls.
The other mosque targeted in the arson attack was in the village of Kour, south of Tulkarem. Three settlers reportedly tried to set the mosque on fire, but worshippers put it out before it could reach the main area of the premises.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 1185 Palestinians in the West Bank, including more than 250 children. At least 12,652 Palestinians have been wounded and more than 24,000 have been detained.
The National reported last week how more than £53 billion will be needed to rebuild "only part of what was destroyed" amid Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Building Gaza Anew – co-authored by Oxfam, the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) and the Palestine Trade Centre (PalTrade) – estimates that the total cost of reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave will be seven times as much as the combined cost of reconstruction after every major Israeli military offensive over the past two decades.
However, Oxfam warned that “even that figure captures only part of what was destroyed – the physical and economic cost – not the deliberate erasure of the social fabric that holds Gaza together, which will take generations to restore”.
