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LONDON — Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf’s parents-in-law are trapped in Gaza and fearing for their lives amid renewed conflict with Israel, his wife has said.
The Scottish National Party leader’s mother-in-law and father-in-law have been trapped in Gaza since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on Saturday. The couple, who are from Dundee, travelled to Gaza last week to see a sick relative and other family, including multiple young grandchildren.
In an interview with the BBC, Yousaf’s wife Nadia El-Nakla said her parents were “caught up in a war situation.”
“My mother says that there is continual bombardment from land, sea and air,” she said, adding that her family had hoped to escape on Tuesday but found that the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt was bombed and inaccessible. All Israeli border crossings have been closed.
“They are just terrified, absolutely terrified, about what is to come and what is happening right now as we speak,” El-Nakla added.
In a video broadcast on the BBC, El-Nakla’s parents — Elizabeth El-Nakla and Maged El-Nakla — detailed their plight.
“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,” Elizabeth El-Nakla says in the video, while visibly close to tears.
“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,” she said. “I ask the world to help the Palestinians.”
Yousaf — due to speak at his party’s annual conference in the coming days — has urged Britain’s foreign secretary, James Cleverly, to call for a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza as the conflict continues to escalate.
He said Cleverly should push for civilians in Gaza to be allowed to leave through the Rafah border, Gaza’s sole border crossing point with Egypt.
