Humza Yousaf today revealed how his mother-in-law has described living through ‘torture’ in Gaza amid the current conflict in the Middle East.
The Scottish First Minister said his wife’s parents don’t know ‘whether they are going to make it from one night to the next’.
He also revealed how Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged – the parents of Mr Yousaf’s wife Nadia – have been left with just six bottles of drinking water between 100 people.
Mr Yousaf this morning visited residents in flood-hit Brechin following the carnage wreaked by Storm Babet.
But, while he was speaking to journalists, the SNP leader was seen to step away from cameras to take a call, which he later said was from Mrs El-Nakla.
She and her husband travelled to Gaza to visit family when hostilities flared up.
Humza Yousaf revealed how his mother-in-law has described living through ‘torture’ in Gaza amid the current conflict in the Middle East
The SNP leader also revealed how Elizabeth El-Nakla and her husband Maged – the parents of his wife Nadia (pictured) – have been left with six bottles of drinking water between 100 people
The couple travelled to Gaza to visit family when hostilities flared up. Mr Yousaf said they don’t know ‘whether they are going to make it from one night to the next’
‘They’re really living in a situation that my mother-in-law describes as torture,’ Mr Yousaf said.
‘The whole night there will be missiles, rocket fire, drones – they don’t know whether they are going to make it from one night to the next.
‘They’re down to six bottles of clean drinking water in a house of 100 people including a two-month-old baby, she tells me.’
On Sunday, a second convoy of trucks entered the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza amid warnings of a looming humanitarian disaster.
Israel has imposed a total blockade and launched air strikes on Gaza in response to the deadly terror attack by Hamas earlier this month.
The Rafah crossing, the main entry and exit point to Gaza that does not lead to Israel, has become the focus of a push to deliver vital supplies.
It had been out of operation until this weekend amid wrangling over conditions for delivering aid.
Mr Yousaf this morning visited flood-hit Brechin following the carnage wreaked by Storm Babet
The First Minister spoke to Paul Fowlie and his partner Kim Clark as he looked at the water damage in their house
Mr Yousaf said he was ‘pleading’ with the UK Government to demand the Rafah crossing be opened on behalf of his mother-in-law.
The First Minister told journalists: ‘She’s asking me, she’s pleading with me, and I’m pleading with the UK Government, not to just ask for the border to be opened, but to demand that Rafah crossing is opened and there’s a ceasefire right now.
‘Because above and beyond my mother-in-law and father-in-law who are two people, there’s 2.2 million people in Gaza, the vast majority are innocent men, women and children, nothing to do with Hamas or their terrible terrorist atrocities, who are suffering.
‘Every single one of us has seen the images, we’ve all seen the pictures, we’re all heartbroken and yet there is no ceasefire.
‘People who want to leave should be allowed to leave and we need far more aid than a trickle of 15 or 20 trucks going in every single day, so I hope the international community will step up their efforts to help the innocent people of Gaza.’