Israel held Lara Bird, the SNP MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, and Kate Nevens, the Scottish Green MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, for around eight hours on Monday at the crossing from Jordan and refused them entry to the occupied West Bank, with no reason given. Labour MP Clive Lewis, former Labour MP Sam Tarry and Josu Estarrona Elizondo, a Basque senator for EH Bildu, were turned back with them. Bird and Lewis were told that as serving MPs they could apply to Israel's foreign minister for special permission; the rest of the delegation was refused outright.

The group was travelling to Progressive International's congress in Ramallah, to meet students and civil society leaders at Birzeit University, and to accompany Palestinian farmers through an olive harvest under attack from Israeli terrorists, commonly referred to as settlers. "I came to stand alongside Palestinians being attacked for harvesting olives on their own land. Instead, we were turned away at the border with no reason given," Bird said. "If Israel has nothing to hide, why is it so determined to stop us seeing what is happening in the Occupied West Bank?" Lewis said the group was "held, interrogated and made to feel as though we had done something wrong simply by attempting to enter".

Israel sealed the West Bank on Friday and has since forced more than 2,600 Palestinians out of their homes in Hebron, and on Monday the UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is committing the crime against humanity of extermination in the territory. The Israeli government has not commented on the detentions. This news is developing, more updates will follow.