London, Thanasis Gavos

An additional £10 million in humanitarian aid for civilians in the occupied Palestinian territories in response to the escalation of conflict in the Middle East has been announced by the British government.

The announcement was made in the House of Commons by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who after condemning the actions of Hamas in both Israel and Palestine, called for immediate freedom of access to Gaza for humanitarian aid organizations.

The new aid package represents a 37% increase on the £27m London has allocated this year for the Palestinians.

The British government emphasizes that its aid is controlled so that it does not end up with Hamas.

Earlier, Mr. Sunak discussed the developments with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, stressing that Hamas does not speak on behalf of ordinary Palestinians.

The two leaders agreed on the need to keep the conflict from spreading and to get humanitarian aid to Gaza.

In this context, Mr. Sunak also communicated with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom they agreed to cooperate for the revival of the peace process in the Middle East.