Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf’s wife, Nadia El-Nakla, is ‘living in a nightmare’ as her mother tearfully revealed she has no food, water or electricity as she remains trapped in Gaza while Israel pounds the region after Hamas’s brutal attacks.
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.
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.
Elizabeth released an emotional video of their desperate situation where at times she was close to tears.
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.
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
In a BBC interview filmed 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.’
In a moving 40-second video, Elizabeth said: ‘We have no electricity. We have no water. The food we do have, which is little, will not last because there is no electricity and it will spoil.
‘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.’
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
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.
‘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.
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
‘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.’
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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