John Swinney demands ‘urgent international action’ after aid convoy attack

John Swinney has demanded “urgent international action” in response to Palestinians being killed while waiting for aid lorries in Gaza.

The Israeli Defence Forces are said to have fired what it described as “warning shots” at crowds who gathered around aid trucks bringing emergency supplies.

The Scottish First Minister insisted: “Reports that those seeking what little aid is permitted to enter Gaza face violence and death at the hands of the Israeli government demands urgent international action.”

His comments came as the UN World Food Programme told how its 25-truck convoy “carrying vital food assisted” for “starving communities in northern Gaza” had come “under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire”.

In a statement after the incident on Sunday July 20, it said: “We are deeply concerned and saddened by this tragic incident resulting in the loss of countless lives.”

Swinney said that that was “unbearable to read”.

He insisted: “The international community must require the Israeli Government to stop these attacks and there must be a ceasefire now to allow humanitarian aid to flow.”

The First Minister made the demands as he wrote in a letter how a recent attack on the only Catholic church in Gaza had brought the “horror of the situation painfully close to home”.

Swinney and his wife Elizabeth met the priest from the Holy Family Church in Gaza, Father Gabriel Romanelli, in Glasgow last year.

Father Romanelli was injured when an explosion hit the front of the church, killing three people and leaving others seriously injured.

Pope Leo XIV has already said he was “deeply saddened” by the “military attack” on the church.

And in a letter to Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and leading Catholic authority in the area, Swinney told how people across Scotland are “moved with both distress and anger at the unimaginable suffering facing the people of Gaza”.

The First Minister told Cardinal Pizzabella: “The heart-breaking reality of the situation in Gaza is that this tragedy, that has taken the lives of three of your parishioners, is but one of an untold number of tragedies that has come to pass in the region since October 7 2023.”

Swinney continued: “That the people of Gaza can not even find peace and sanctuary within the confines of their place of worship beings me real pain.”

He told the Cardinal that he would “pray for the families of the dead, for the injured and for lasting peace in Gaza”.

But Swinney also pledged: “The government I will lead will continue to do everything it can to help achieve a ceasefire in the region.”

The First Minister’s comments came as he noted that “over 55,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began”, adding that “many more are being starved of food, water and humanitarian aid”.