The Swedish government, fresh from issuing abject apologies to the Muslim world, will now increase their payouts to Hamas: Sweden increases Palestinian aid. (Hat tip: Evil Pundit.)

Sweden’s state-run aid group on Monday pledged more than five million euros in additional aid to the Palestinian territories as Israel and the United States halted much of their funding following Hamas’s election victory.

“The humanitarian situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has worsened,” the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) said in a statement, adding that it would provide 50 million kronor (6.4 million dollars) to the United Nations’ aid programs there.

In 2005, SIDA donated nearly 100 million kronor to the Palestinian territories, a spokesman for the group told AFP.

The additional aid was necessary since Israel was not living up to its responsibility as an occupying power, Peter Lundberg of SIDA’s humanitarian unit said in a statement.

“According to the fourth Geneva convention, the occupying power has a particular responsibility to support and ensure the human dignity of the occupied,” he said.

“Since Israel is not living up to its responsibility under international law, large parts of the Palestinian population are now completely dependent on international humanitarian aid,” Lundberg added.