The First Minister has pledged a further £250,000 to aid displaced Palestinians access food, water and medical supplies.

It takes the Scottish Government's total funding to assist the relief efforts to £750,000, benefiting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) flash appeal.

The fund specifically helps those in Gaza amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel conflict, with more than 670,000 people understood to currently be seeking safety in UNWRA shelters in the region.

Humza Yousaf's in-laws, from Dundee, remain trapped in Gaza without clean drinking water and "rapidly diminishing supplies", he said on Wednesday.

READ MORE: Teddy Bear protest in memory of Palestinian children held in Glasgow

Mr Yousaf said: "I have been repeatedly calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, but while we press this vital issue it's important we support the Palestinian people as much as we can.

"The situation in Gaza is catastrophic, which is why I'm pledging this additional funding to support in helping to stop the humanitarian disaster we are witnessing.

The Herald: Palestinians try to pull a girl out of the rubble of a building that was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled).

"As supplies run out in Gaza, the lives of innocent civilians are at grave risk from a lack of food, water, medical supplies and fuel.

"My thoughts remain with all of those caught in the middle of the escalating conflict in Israel and Gaza. The killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, wherever it occurs."

The First Minister recently wrote to UK political leaders to urge them to support a ceasefire and to allow a humanitarian corridor to open.

READ MORE: Israel and Gaza: What happens next?

With the Rafah crossing into Egypt now open to allow some foreign nationals to leave, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Wednesday that the UK Government is working to help as many British passport holders as possible to leave the Gaza Strip.

Marta Lorenzo, director of the UNRWA representative office for Europe, said: "Scotland is helping UNRWA provide shelter, food, medicines and water to entire families that had to flee their home.

"We are extremely grateful for the additional contribution from Scotland, demonstrating the increasingly strong support to UNRWA."

The Herald: The Teddy Protest in Glasgow on Wednesday in memory of children killed in Gaza. Photo Colin Mearns.

The extra aid from the Scottish Government was announced this morning after hundreds of parents and children gathered in the centre of Glasgow yesterday to protest the bombardment of Gaza as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues.

The group Parents for Palestine Glasgow held a static protest in George Square in solidarity with the Palestinian community.

During the event, children laid cuddly toys in the city's civic centre in memory and acknowledgement of the 3100 children who have been killed in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) last month.

The Herald: A man, sitting on debris, reacts as Palestinians conduct a search and rescue operation after the second bombardment of the Israeli army in the last 24 hours at Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza on November 01, 2023. Dozens of people were reportedly killed and wounded. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images).

Nearly half - around one million - residents of Palestine are children. On Saturday last week, October 28, Israel imposed a telephone and internet blackout in Gaza, leaving residents unable to contact friends and family outside the territory.

The protest came as it emerged the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders.

Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes have hit apartment buildings in a Gaza refugee camp for the second day in a row, Palestinian officials said.

Al-Jazeera television, one of the few media outlets still reporting from northern Gaza, aired footage of devastation in the Jabaliya camp near Gaza City and of several wounded people, including children, being taken to a nearby hospital.

The Hamas-run government said the strikes killed and wounded many people but the exact toll is not yet known.

Al-Jazeera footage showed nearly identical scenes as the day before, with dozens of men digging through the grey rubble of demolished multi-storey buildings in search of survivors.

The toll from Tuesday's strikes was also unknown, though the director of a nearby hospital said hundreds were killed or wounded.

Israel said those strikes killed dozens of militants, including a senior Hamas commander involved in the militants' bloody October 7 rampage that ignited the war, and destroyed militant tunnels beneath the buildings.

In a sign of increasing alarm over the war among Arab countries, Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Israel and told Israel's ambassador to remain out of the country.

Jordan, a key US ally, signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994, the second Arab country after Egypt to do so.

The strikes came as Israeli ground forces pushed to the outskirts of Gaza City, days after launching a new phase of the war that Israel's leaders say will be long and difficult.

As when Israeli troops first pushed into Gaza in larger numbers over the weekend, internet and phone service was cut for several hours on Wednesday.

The isolated Palestinian enclave, home to 2.3 million people, is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis amid a siege imposed by Israel in the wake of the October 7 attack.

More than half the population have fled their homes and supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel are running low.

A territory-wide blackout has left hospitals reliant on generators that could shut down soon as Israel has barred all fuel imports.

The strikes in Jabaliya underline the anticipated surge in casualties on both sides as Israeli troops advance toward the outskirts of Gaza City and its dense residential neighbourhoods.

Israeli officials say Hamas's military infrastructure, including hundreds of miles of underground tunnels, is concentrated in the city, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war.

Despite the deteriorating circumstances, no one has been allowed to leave Gaza, except for four hostages released by Hamas.

Another captive was rescued by Israeli forces earlier this week. But a limited agreement appeared to have been reached on Wednesday.

The Palestinian crossing authority said more than 400 foreign passport holders would be permitted to leave for Egypt, as would some wounded people. Egypt, however, has said it will not accept an influx of Palestinian refugees because of fears Israel will not allow them to return to Gaza after the war.

Dozens of people could be seen entering the Rafah crossing - the only one currently operating - and ambulances carrying wounded Palestinians exited on the Egyptian side.

More than 80 Palestinians - out of many thousands wounded in the war - will be brought in for treatment, Egypt's Health Ministry said, and a field hospital has been set up in an Egyptian town near the crossing.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, meanwhile, said that Gaza's only hospital offering specialised treatment for cancer patients was forced to shut down because of lack of fuel, leaving 70 cancer patients in a critical situation.

More than 8500 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and children, and more than 21,000 people have been wounded, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Tuesday, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters.

The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

More than 1400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas's initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.

Palestinian militants also abducted around 240 people during their incursion and have continued firing rockets into Israel.

The Israeli military confirmed on Wednesday that nine soldiers have been killed in fighting in northern Gaza, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since the start of the ground operation to 11.

The UK government has twice vetoed a UN resolution for a ceasefire.