Chamber and committees

You are absolutely correct that the international community is concerned about the potential for widening an already appalling situation, and you are right to point to the risks of escalation in Lebanon and Israel. The feeling is that, every day, the shooting between Hezbollah and the Israeli Defense Forces is ratcheting up. Yesterday, the Yemeni armed forces launched missiles in the direction of Israel, and other organisations in and around Israel will be close to the Iranian Government. International Governments—not least that of the United States of America, which is able to exercise significant diplomatic and military presence—are focused on ensuring that the conflict does not escalate more widely. The Scottish Government does not have a direct locus in that: foreign affairs, defence and security are matters for the United Kingdom Government.

Our position would be to support UK diplomatic efforts and those of the international community to do everything to ensure that there is not a widening of the conflict. I do not need to tell this committee, nor anybody watching the proceedings, that the situation in Gaza, the west bank and Israel has been long and troubled and previous wars have involved neighbouring countries. The risks are in plain sight.

We would support anything that can be done to help avoid an escalation and we encourage those with a locus and an ability to do so to emphasise restraint on all parties. We would welcome that.

I would have to discuss the detail of which organisations we have had and continue to have links with beyond the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which is the principal agency for the international community.

We all appreciate that, because of the extreme nature of the circumstance and the extreme distress in which people in Gaza find themselves, it is primarily UNRWA, the UN agency, that has the capability. We should put on the record that UNRWA is also having to pay an incredibly high price for its efforts on the ground. I think that I am right in saying that, since the beginning of the recent conflict, more than 70 members of UNRWA staff have died trying to maintain the places of safety that they have and to get supplies to the warehouses to be distributed. That is why our principal focus is on UNRWA, which has launched a flash appeal.

However, we will keep under constant review our relationship with other charities and third sector organisations, in particular those with which we have an established relationship. We will try to ensure that taxpayers’ money is spent as well as it can possibly be spent in such circumstances. I am sure that people will welcome the fact that we and others are doing what we can to support the UN and other agencies to do what they can on the ground to help people who do not have food or drinking water, who often do not have shelter and many of whom now do not have hope. We need to do everything that we possibly can and we intend to continue doing so.

The First Minister wrote to the ambassador of Israel on 11 October and wrote to the Palestinian representative to the UK on 13 October. Channels of communication remain open. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians have a consulate general in Scotland, but routes of communication with both the Israelis and the Palestinians are open, and I have no doubt that there will be further communication.

I have not been privy to those conversations, and Mr Cameron will be aware that that is not my direct area of responsibility. He will also appreciate that operational matters for the police and the security services are for Police Scotland and the security services. I have no doubt that they are assiduously assessing the situation and making the necessary decisions.

However, there have been conversations where I and colleagues have a locus—indeed, I think that we all do—with regard to doing everything that we can to support the best community relations possible here. Unfortunately, we have seen that those community relations are being sorely tested in some other parts of Europe and the world.

We must do everything that we can to support Scotland’s Jewish community and to work with our Muslim community, especially people of Palestinian descent. It is very important that we do everything that we can to ensure that, although what is happening in the middle east is a tragedy, it does not lead to a worsening of community relations here.

Mr Ruskell is absolutely right to say that we should not lose sight of the very testing and difficult circumstances in the west bank, which is occupied Palestinian territory. That does not just concern the displacement of Palestinians; it has involved the deaths of Palestinians in recent days. The circumstances for people there are extremely difficult.

The Scottish Government’s position remains as it has always been: the west bank and the Gaza strip form the basis of Palestinian territories that we believe should be part of a two-state solution—a solution that can help to provide both security for the people of Israel and independence and security for the people of Palestine. We will use whatever influence we can.

This is perhaps an opportunity to underline the points that Mr Ruskell and I have made. We should not lose sight of the fact that, notwithstanding the very understandable focus on Gaza, the challenges for people in the west bank continue to be substantive. The Israeli authorities, as the occupying power, have a responsibility to ensure the life, liberty and security of Palestinian people in the west bank, not just of Israeli citizens. We will definitely continue to monitor that.

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the committee on the First Minister’s letter calling for an immediate ceasefire on all sides to allow the creation of a humanitarian corridor into and out of Gaza.

I start by reiterating the Scottish Government’s condemnation of the appalling attacks that were carried out by Hamas on 7 October. That barbaric attack was the single biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. We must all acknowledge the trauma that that outrage has caused not only for the nation of Israel and Israelis but among Jewish communities in Scotland and around the world. Among the victims was Bernard Cowan, an innocent Scot from Glasgow, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family and to the families of all his fellow victims.

Our condemnation is clear: Hamas missile attacks on Israel must stop and Hamas must release immediately and unconditionally all hostages. As we have repeatedly stated, Israel clearly has a right to self-defence, and Hamas and organisations like it cannot be a part of Gaza’s future. We must be clear: Hamas is not Gaza, and Gaza is not Hamas. All Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in peace and security.

As President Biden has said, in defending itself and its citizens, Israel must act in a manner that is consistent with international humanitarian law, which prioritises the protection of civilians. The situation that is now unfolding in Gaza is disastrous. More than 1.4 million people have been displaced. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East—UNRWA—reports that more than 670,000 people are in its shelters, which is three times what is supposed to be their maximum capacity. Water, food, fuel and medical supplies are restricted. The trickle of aid through the Rafah crossing is nowhere near enough, and the World Health Organization has warned of an imminent public health catastrophe.

All the while, fatalities continue to mount. In addition to the more than 1,400 Israelis who have been slaughtered by Hamas, more than 8,500 Palestinians have now been killed. The head of UNICEF has said that

“more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza each day”.

A tragedy is unfolding before our eyes. That is why the First Minister has written to political leaders across the United Kingdom to emphasise that we must do everything within our powers to stop it. He has called for all parties to commit to an immediate ceasefire and to allow a humanitarian corridor to be opened so that life-saving supplies can get into Gaza and innocent civilians who want to leave can be given safe passage out. That is consistent with calls by the United Nations secretary general and many other world leaders.

For those Gazans who want to stay, humanitarian aid will be vital, and we have already pledged £500,000 to UNRWA, to support its flash appeal. The First Minister will meet UNRWA later today, and I can confirm to the committee that, this morning, we will announce that we will provide a further £250,000 to support the immediate humanitarian effort.

It is imperative that humanitarian agencies are able to safely deliver aid into Gaza in the quantities that are needed. All parties should work together to that end. For those who want to leave, the First Minister has expressed our support for the creation of a worldwide refugee resettlement scheme.

My colleague Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, has written to the Home Secretary to formally request that the United Kingdom Government use the already established UK resettlement scheme to work with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to establish a route to safety for the most vulnerable Gazans, such as children and families and those with severe health needs, and those with links to residents in Scotland. She has also reiterated that Scotland is ready to play its part in the medical evacuation of injured citizens from Gaza, and Israeli citizens if required, through activation of the UK medical evacuation scheme. Scottish hospitals stand ready to treat injured civilians where we can.

Finally, all parties recognise the value of having strong and supportive communities and the importance of community cohesion. Although Police Scotland has not reported a rise in hate crime in response to the events in the middle east, we must all remain vigilant. There is no space in Scotland for antisemitism or Islamophobia. We must be alive to discrimination and racism in all its forms, and must ensure that there is one Scotland where people of all faiths and none live in peace and harmony and where everyone has the opportunity to flourish.

It is absolutely right to say that there are tremendous organisations of the kind that Ms Forbes has just mentioned that have great experience of dealing with refugees who have arrived here, whether from Ukraine, Yemen or Syria. We have a strong track record in Scotland—the Scottish Government, local authorities and the third sector—of helping people to arrive, seek refuge and find a new home here.

It is absolutely right that we have initiated contact with the UK Government to begin the process of thinking—and we hope, in time, talking, too—about how we might be able to help. However, I reflect that the experience of people in Gaza, not just now but historically, is that their movements have been very restricted in times of peace, and that is the case now in times of war. As we saw on our television screens yesterday, we are only now beginning to see people being allowed out of Gaza.

It is right that we think about everything that we can offer. In addition to people seeking refuge, should they be allowed to leave, a great number of people have suffered injury in Gaza, where hospitals are overwhelmed and have been threatened with closure and, in many cases, ordered to evacuate. Therefore, there might also be a role for us and others to offer help and support to people who require medical treatment—from the national health service but also from military medical services, because there is a great strength in that in the UK.

Therefore, it is right for us to think about all those things, and that is why we have initiated contact with the UK Government. We are still waiting to have substantive discussions about what that might amount to, but we are right to make preparations for the situation of people being able to leave who would seek refuge and have no alternatives with regard to where they were able to go.

I thank Mr Bibby for his introductory words.

Those questions were raised by the First Minister in his discussion with the Prime Minister. At that stage, the UK Government and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office were not clear how many Scots residents were among UK passport holders in Gaza. The UK Government has an idea of the total number of UK passport holders in Gaza, but, because we do not record residency as a matter of course, there is not a definitive answer to that question.

On the UK effort on the ground, I think that I am right in saying that UK nationals, if they have been identified by the FCDO, are being updated. That is complicated by the fact that, as has been widely reported, telecommunications have been subject to interruption. Up until now, because the Rafah border crossing has not been open, people had been informed that they were unable to leave.

Since yesterday, lists have begun to be posted to highlight which nationals are able to leave on a day-to-day basis, so I have no doubt that the FCDO teams on the ground are involved in trying to inform people about how and when they will be able to depart. All that is, of course, complicated by the fact that, although the Israeli military focus is largely on northern Gaza, there are still air strikes and artillery rounds landing in southern Gaza, which makes the journey to Rafah dangerous.

I give a commitment to the committee to share any further update as soon as there is one. We will take the question away and ask for an update, given that there has been a change of circumstance, with people beginning to be able to leave, so that we can best inform you about the FCDO’s take on the process of helping people to get out, how people are being informed about that and how they can be informed if there continues to be breaks in communications. We will make sure that committee members are provided with that update as soon as we get it from the FCDO.

The situation in Gaza is obviously very different from that in the west bank, in that there is a war currently going on in Gaza and the ability to get any supplies into Gaza is extremely restricted. That is one of the things that have caused real distress to the United Nations and its agencies. It is still only a very small proportion of humanitarian supplies—such as food and the oil supplies that are required to maintain generators for hospitals and other public services—that are getting in. That is only a tiny percentage of that which UNRWA calculates is required.

Mr Ruskell has named a number of towns, cities and communities in the west bank, which are in a different situation: they are not in the same war situation as Gaza at the present time. I am sure that communities in Scotland that have links there will be thinking a lot about what they can do, in exactly the same way that the Scottish Government has been thinking about what we can do to help people in distress. That is why we have been supportive of the United Nations, which has the organisation on the ground and which is best able to calculate how best to provide support. I encourage local authorities that have links with communities to avail themselves of the likes of UNRWA, the United Nations agency with responsibility for supporting Palestinians in the near east, as a primary point of contact. Many other organisations also have an established track record of working in the west bank and, in the past, in Gaza.

I am not aware that there has been any change in the guidance, but if it would be helpful to Mr Ruskell, I will ensure that I forward on to him—through you, convener—the current status of that. As I have just said, however, I am not aware of there having been any change in that guidance.