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MP and MSP detained by Israel and barred from entering West Bank

News imagePA Media Lara Bird, who has blonde hair tied back, looking slightly off camera. She is wearing a denim blue top but only her head and shoulders are visible. She is standing in front of a blurred background of bookshelves.PA Media
SNP MP Lara Bird said she was detained by Israeli authorities for eight hours

Two Scottish politicians have said they were detained by Israeli authorities for eight hours while trying to enter the West Bank.

SNP MP Lara Bird and Scottish Greens MSP Kate Nevens said they were prevented from entering the territory before being questioned and eventually turned away.

Bird said in a social media post that they had intended to "stand alongside Palestinians being attacked for harvesting olives on their own land".

They had travelled to the region as part of a Progressive International delegation that also included Labour MP Clive Lewis and a former member of the Basque senate.

The Israeli military announced on Monday that all West Bank land crossings would be closed as part of increased security measures during Tuesday's national elections.

Posting on Instagram, Bird said the 23-strong group was "interrogated and ultimately prevented from crossing the border".

About 2,000 Palestinian residents have been displaced in Hebron, a city in the southern West Bank, in recent days.

Footage shared online appeared to show one street being completely flattened by bulldozers.

That came as a reprisal for the killing of two Israeli soldiers by Palestinian gunmen.

Several other attacks on Palestinians during the annual olive harvest have also been reported in the run-up to the elections.

They are the first since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023.

A spokesperson for the SNP said the party was "proud to stand with the Palestinian people".