The wife of Scotland’s first minister dramatically burst into an interview he was conducting today saying she feared her family’s home in Gaza had been bombed.
Both Mr Yousaf and his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, have been candid in their fears for her family – including her parents, grandmother and brother and his children – who are currently trapped in Gaza.
Her parents, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, travelled to Gaza last week to visit his 93-year-old mother when Hamas attacked Israel, prompting reprisals and senior Israeli officials declaring a ‘siege’ of the territory.
The First Minister was due to speak to various media outlets on Thursday ahead of the party’s conference in Aberdeen this weekend.
In the early minutes of speaking to the PA news agency in the drawing room of his official residence at Bute House, Ms El-Nakla entered the room, sobbing, telling the First Minister she could not contact her family, whom they had been speaking to just hours before.
The First Minister later said she had been watching media reports of bombing, recognising the area to be near where her parents are staying. She would eventually manage to contact her family, who verified that they were safe.
Mr Yousaf – although visibly shaken by the news – insisted the interview go ahead.
Both Mr Yousaf and his wife, Nadia El-Nakla, have been candid in their fears for her family – including her parents, grandmother and brother and his children – who are currently trapped in Gaza.
![Elizabeth El-Nakla (pictured) the mother-in-law of Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, released a moving video detailing her desperate situation in Gaza where she is trapped](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/12/07/76462129-12622027-image-a-1_1697092343782.jpg)
Elizabeth El-Nakla (pictured) the mother-in-law of Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, released a moving video detailing her desperate situation in Gaza where she is trapped
![Nadia El-Nakla spoke to the BBC and said she is 'living in a nightmare' and is 'terrified' about what might happen to her parents](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/12/07/76462131-12622027-image-a-2_1697092347729.jpg)
Nadia El-Nakla spoke to the BBC and said she is ‘living in a nightmare’ and is ‘terrified’ about what might happen to her parents
Ms El-Nakla had been watching TV reports of bombing, and recognised the area as where they were staying and feared it had been hit, although was later able to contact her mother.
When the interview resumed, he said: ‘(Nadia’s) family live in a place called Deir Al-Balah, it’s just outside Gaza City.
‘Nadia was watching Al-Jazeera Live – and Nadia used to travel to Deir Al-Balah before the blockade – and she recognised the neighbourhood, it was their neighbourhood being hit.
‘She couldn’t get through to her mum and dad, so she was obviously very distressed.
‘But she has, thank God, her mum has got a message through saying, ‘our neighbourhood is being hit, we haven’t been hit yet’.’
He added: ‘The Israeli government know where our family is, they know the co-ordinates, to that extent, so my hope is that they won’t be hit.’
Ms El-Nakla spoke to the BBC on Wednesday, saying her parents continually ‘feel like they are going to die’.
Along with her parents and elderly grandmother, her brother – a doctor – has four children, the youngest of whom is just four weeks old.
Mrs Yousaf had previously described how she was ‘living in a nightmare’ as her parents remain trapped in Gaza while Israel pounds the region after Hamas’ attacks.
They travelled from their Dundee home to the Palestinian territory to visit Maged’s sick 92-year-old mother just days before Hamas terrorists launched its surprise attack on Israel.
Thousands of Israeli bombs have since rained down on the Gaza Strip in retaliation leaving them trapped with their four grandchildren in the besieged city of Deir al-Balah.
In an emotional plea for help, Elizabeth tearfully revealed they have no food, water or electricity. She added: ‘I have four grandchildren in this home – a two-month-old baby, a four-year-old and, today, two nine-year-old twins. Their birthday. I ask the world to help the Palestinians.’
Mr Yousaf’s wife Nadia El-Nakla said she was ‘terrified’ about what might happen and that it was growing increasingly difficult to stay in touch with her parents as they were struggling to keep their phones charged. Speaking to the BBC at Bute House, the First Minister’s official residence, she said her mother had not slept since Monday.
She said: ‘They are caught up in a war situation. My mother says there is continual bombardment from land, sea and air. They are terrified, absolutely terrified, about what is to come and what is happening right now as we speak.’
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was ‘at war’ as its military began striking targets in Gaza in response.
The war has already claimed at least 2,300 lives on both sides.
Nadia added: ‘At times my arms feel like lead and it feels like I am just living in a nightmare for them. So I can’t understand how they feel.’
On Israeli warnings that Gaza will be ‘obliterated’ in response to the Hamas terror attacks, she said: ‘It puts the complete fear into me that I am never going to see them again.’
On Tuesday, Mr Yousaf wrote to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, urging him to call on Israel to open a humanitarian corridor. He wrote: ‘Too many innocent people have already lost their lives as a consequence of these completely unjustifiable and illegitimate attacks by Hamas.
‘However, innocent men, women and children cannot, and should not, pay the price for the actions of a terrorist group. Collective punishment of innocent civilians cannot be justified and will do nothing to set the conditions for peace in the region.
![Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla travelled from their Dundee home to the Palestinian territory to visit Maged's sick 92-year-old mother just days before Hamas terrorists launched its surprise attack on Israel](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/12/07/76462127-12622027-image-a-3_1697092353848.jpg)
Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla travelled from their Dundee home to the Palestinian territory to visit Maged’s sick 92-year-old mother just days before Hamas terrorists launched its surprise attack on Israel
‘As a close friend and ally of Israel, I therefore ask the UK Government to call on the government of Israel to ensure innocent civilians are protected and to put in place an immediate ceasefire to allow the safe passage of civilians through the Rafah border.
‘Furthermore, it should open a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to allow supplies, including food, fuel, water and medical supplies, for those civilians who are trapped, helpless and cannot leave.’
Mr Yousaf revealed earlier this week his parents-in-law were trapped in Gaza by the Israeli military.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Mr Yousaf said: ‘As many will know, my wife is Palestinian, her mum and dad, my in-laws, who live in Dundee, live in Scotland, they’ve been in Gaza and are currently trapped in Gaza, I’m afraid.’
They went to visit Mr Yousaf’s father in-law’s 92-year-old ‘elderly and frail’ mother, when the Hamas attack took place and have been told by Israeli authorities to leave because ‘Gaza will effectively be obliterated’, the First Minister said.
‘Despite the best efforts of the British Foreign Office, nobody, nobody can guarantee them safe passage anywhere,’ he said. ‘So I’m in a situation where, frankly, night by night, day by day, we don’t know whether or not my mother in law and father in law – who have nothing to do, as most Gazans don’t, with Hamas or with any terror attack – whether they will make it through the night or not.’
![Israel has continued to pound the Gaza Strip, with residents of the enclave facing ever-growing uncertainty after the territory's only power plant was shut down. Pictured: Smoke rises from buildings in Gaza following an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/12/07/76450549-12622027-Israel_has_continued_to_pound_the_Gaza_Strip_with_residents_of_t-a-13_1697093872516.jpg)
Israel has continued to pound the Gaza Strip, with residents of the enclave facing ever-growing uncertainty after the territory’s only power plant was shut down. Pictured: Smoke rises from buildings in Gaza following an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday
![Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continue](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/10/12/07/76462717-12622027-image-a-14_1697093880355.jpg)
Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City as raging battles between Israel and the Hamas movement continue
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to ‘crush and destroy’ Hamas, warning that every member of the terrorist organsisation is a ‘dead man’.
During his stark late night television address, the Israeli Prime Minister accused the Palestinian militants of beheading soldiers and raping women as the fifth day of fighting came to a close.
His claims about the beheadings had not been independently confirmed but rescue workers and witnesses had described horrific scenes.
Israel has continued to pound the Gaza Strip, with residents of the enclave facing ever-growing uncertainty after the territory’s only power plant was shut down earlier today.
The country’s blockage has blocked supplies of fuel, food, water and medicines into the Palestinian territory leaving Gaza’s 2.3 million residents without electricity, internet or running water.
The Israeli bombardment is said to have displaced 260,000 people from Gaza, according to the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency.
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