Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf urged authorities to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza today as he revealed the privations faced by his in-laws as Israel tightens its siege ahead of a ground invasion.
Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, the parents of Mr Yousaf’s wife Nadia, became trapped in the Palestinian territory when Hamas launched its bloody cross-border attack.
The couple from Dundee were visiting Mr El-Nakla’s 92-year-old mother, who lives in Gaza, as do several other family members.
Both Mr Yousaf and his wife have been candid in their fears for her family as Israel bombards an area with a population of more than two million. It is massing troops on the border ahead of an expected invasion soon.
Mr Yousaf used an interview ahead of the SNP conference, which starts today, to urge Foreign Secretary James Cleverly to be ‘unequivocal’ with the Israeli Government about the need for humanitarian aid, despite Hamas’s ‘barbarism’.
He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme he and his wife had had a panicked call overnight from her mother, saying her goodbyes, thought it turned out to be a false alarm.
‘I spoke to my mother-in-law yesterday. The whole day she hadn’t eaten – she had one egg, she told me,’ he said.
‘She had had virtually a couple of sips of water because they have dozens of people now in their house and they have little drinking water.
Mr Yousaf used an interview ahead of the SNP conference, which starts today, to urge Israel, Egypt and other power-players to act to help civilians despite Hamas’s ‘barbarism’.
Both Mr Yousaf and his wife have been candid in their fears for her family as Israel bombards an area with a population of more than two million. It is massing troops on the border ahead of an expected invasion soon.
Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, the parents of Mr Yousaf’s wife Nadia, became trapped in the Palestinian territory when Hamas launched its bloody cross-border attack.
‘If that is true of my in-laws who by Gazan standards have money, then what on earth is the plight for those who are suffering the greatest?’
He added: ‘The UK Government is a trusted ally of Israel, they should use that trusted position to be explicit, unequivocal, and say a humanitarian corridor to allow supplies to come in and to allow people to leave, must open.
‘The border, Rafah crossing, must open.
‘And there has to be a ceasefire because you can have an open border, but if people can’t travel there because they’re worried about being hit by a missile, a rocket, Hamas gunfire, then they’re not going to take the risk to travel – or they may and may get killed en route.
‘So the UK Government has to do more.’
Elizabeth El-Nakla sent a tearful video to her son-in-law this week, which was posted to X, formerly Twitter, where she questioned ‘Where is humanity? Where’s people’s hearts in the world, to let this happen in this day and age?’
Israeli jets have pounded Gaza over the past week, targeting Hamas terrorists
Speaking on Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg from the SNP conference in Aberdeen, the First Minister said: ‘Last night was a very difficult night, if I’m honest.
‘We got a call at one in the morning from my mother in law in a panic.’
Someone in the neighbourhood where they live, he said, had been told to evacuate their home because it was due to be hit, leaving neighbours ‘running to goodness and God knows where’.
‘You can imagine the panic, and my mother-in-law was even saying her goodbyes, which was pretty hard to hear.’
The alert, however, was a ‘false alarm’, the First Minister said.
The First Minister also backed a potential UK Government scheme to accept Israelis and Palestinians seeking to flee the violence.
‘Asked about such a move, Humza Yousaf said he ‘absolutely’ supports it.
He added: ‘There’s many people who are worried about their relatives – Jewish, Muslim, Christian, atheist, agnostic – whether it’s those that are captured by Hamas or whether it’s those like my own family in Gaza.’
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