Humza Yousaf's family running out of water in Gaza
- Published
Elizabeth El-Nakla and Maged El-Nakla were visiting family in Gaza when the Hamas attacks happened
Humza Yousaf's family are running out of water as they shelter from Israeli bombardment in Gaza, the first minister has said.
His parents-in-law have been trapped in the territory for two weeks following deadly attacks by Hamas in Israel.
The SNP said the experience was like "torture" for his relatives, who are from Dundee.
He reiterated his call for the UK government to demand safe passage for civilians from Gaza.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he was working with Israel and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing into Egypt to help British nationals leave the area.
Humza Yousaf says his in-laws have six bottles of drinking water for 100 people
Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged - the parents of Mr Yousaf's wife Nadia - travelled to Gaza to see a sick relative.
During a visit to the flood-hit town of Brechin in Angus, Mr Yousaf could be seen speaking on the phone, walking away from his advisers to take the call, which was later revealed to be from his mother-in-law.
"It's a nightmare situation," he told BBC Scotland News. "It's a nightmare for us but it's torture for them.
"They can't sleep and of course they worry about the house being bombarded."
The first minister said the couple were down to six bottles of drinking water in a house where 100 people were sheltering, including a child of two months old.
He urged the UK government to demand that the Rafah crossing be opened "to allow foreign nationals and other innocent men, women and children in Gaza, with nothing to do with Hamas, to be able to leave".
On Saturday, 20 aid trucks crossed from Egypt for the first time in two weeks. Campaigners have described the supplies as a "drop in the ocean" of what is needed.
Mr Yousaf said: "We're seeing trickles of aid coming through, nowhere near what needs to go in.
"The border also has to be opened to let people out because there is far too many innocent men, women and children - not just my mother-in-law and father-in-law - many, many innocent men, women and children are suffering a great deal."
Israel began retaliatory air strikes on Gaza after Hamas's military wing killed about 1,400 people in an attack on Israel.
More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed in the last two weeks in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
UN agencies warned that Gaza was in a "desperate" humanitarian crisis even before the recent hostilities and was already reliant on about 500 trucks a day delivering vital supplies.
About 1.2 million people living in the territory - out of a population of 2.2 million - already relied on food aid from UN relief agency UNRWA before 7 October.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Israeli military said it would "deepen" and "increase" the strikes, in order to allow Israel to "minimise the risks to our forces in the next stages of the war".
Thousands of people took part in in pro-Palestinian protests across the UK on Sunday, including a demonstration in Glasgow.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the UK government will provide a further £20m of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
RAF and Royal Navy assets will also be deployed to monitor the situation in Israel and Palestine, he said.
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- Published19 October 2023
