A Scottish Government agency has given hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money to arms companies supplying Israel since it began its bombardment of Gaza.
The Ferret has learned that Raytheon, BAE Systems and Leonardo have all received six-figure grants from business agency Scottish Enterprise since Israel began bombing Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas terror attack on 7 October 2023, which killed around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians.
More than 35,000 people – the majority women and children – have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its offensive.
BAE was paid its grant – worth £360,000 – on 4 April, the day after then-first minister Humza Yousaf wrote to the UK Government calling for an end to UK arms sales to Israel. BAE has partnered with a US firm on the F-35 fighter jet which Israel has used in its bombing of Gaza.
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