Ed Miliband has announced an £88 million aid package for Palestinians in Gaza – just as the British Army faces cuts to save £30 million. GB News has the story.
The huge aid package will provide medical relief, including rehabilitation for children with blast injuries, and mental health services for Palestinians.
Britain’s tax-funded aid will also provide clean water, sanitation and hygiene services, waste management, the Foreign Office said.
Miliband said: “It is vital that civilians in Gaza have unhindered access to aid.
“The UK is pledging a major new package of aid to provide much needed healthcare support to those desperately in need.
“We urge the Government of Israel to listen to our call to action and take steps to end its unacceptable restrictions on Gaza.”
The Foreign Office said the aid package followed a “reset of its approach to Israel and Palestine earlier this month”.
Andy Burnham announced sanctions on goods produced by West Bank settlers in what critics have described as a “de facto boycott” of Israel.
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s Treasury spokesman, said the funds should be spent on solving issues closer to home.
“Scrap that,” he said. “Use the money to build a new hospital wing in Grimsby, not Gaza.”
The package will be used to help up to 900,000 Palestinians receive medical consultations, up to 1,000 children to receive rehabilitation and prosthetic treatment, solid waste management for up to 900,000 people and safe water provision through emergency water trucking for 150,000.
It will also provide mental health and “psychosocial support” for up to 21,000 Palestinians.
The British Army, meanwhile, has been ordered to cut training to save £30 million – a decision slammed by the UK’s own Nato allies.
Army reserve commanding officers have been told to find savings before the end of the year – meaning every Army reservist is thought to be losing an average of four to six days of service.
Worth reading in full.
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Costs of building such hospitals will be inflated by the need to construct tunnel systems to shelter Hamas fighters, hide their weaponry and detain, torture and rape captured Israeli citizens.
What Milliband means is, It is vital that we win the bielection, and looking after the interests of our Muslim voting constituency, by giving Uk defence funding to people who support a Terrorist group is essential in reaching that goal.
I think that is what he really means.
What frightens me is that he doesn’t. There is a clip of him telling an American citizen journalist that he’s ‘trying to make the world a better place’. Echoes of Blair’s absurd ‘liberal interventionism’. A British Foreign Secretary’s job is first and foremost to promote British interests abroad, as all the good – or merely competent – ones have understood. I suspect that Miliband hasn’t the least thought of trying to do as much, or why it matters.