THE SCOTTISH FIRST Minister Humza Yousaf has said he doesn’t know if his Mother-in-law will return from the Gaza Strip.
Earlier today, Yousaf revealed his Mother-in-law is one of the over two million people who are still inside the perimetres of Gaza and shared a video on X, formerly Twitter, of her.
Later, he told Sky News he is uncertain if she will come back to Scotland.
Earlier today, Israel ordered the evacuation of over 1.1 million people in Northern Gaza, with many believing its military are preparing for an imminent ground offensive.
The order has been denounced by many world leaders and organisations including the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and Amnesty International.
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees earlier labelled Israel’s evacuation order as “horrendous”.
The UN Chief, Antonio Guterres, has appealed for Israel to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe” this evening. The organisation said the evacuation would be “impossible”, of which a spokesperson for the Israeli Defence Forces agreed.
The Israeli military said this evening that a number of a small raids have been conducted by their personnel inside the Gaza Strip. The first time that it has confirmed forces are on the ground.
In a post on X this morning, Yousaf said: “This is Elizabeth El-Nakla. She is my mother-in-law. A retired nurse from Dundee, Scotland. She, like the vast majority of people in Gaza, has nothing to do with Hamas.
“She has been told to leave Gaza but, like the rest of the population, is trapped with nowhere to go,” he added.
Nakla, a former nurse, said people from Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip were moving southward after Israel gave Palestinians 24 hours to leave the besieged enclave’s largest city.
“One million people. No food, no water…” she said in what she called her “last video”.
“Where are we going to put them? But, my [first] thought is, all these people in the hospital cannot be evacuated. Where’s humanity?,” she asks.
This is Elizabeth El-Nakla. She is my mother-in-law. A retired nurse from Dundee, Scotland. She, like the vast majority of people in Gaza, has nothing to do with Hamas. She has been told to leave Gaza but, like the rest of the population, is trapped with nowhere to go. pic.twitter.com/D3ZUtnEmyO
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 13, 2023
The World Health Organisation (WHO) called for Israel to immediately reverse its evacuation order on the Gaza Strip.
In a statement WHO said it is joining “the wider United Nations in appealing to Israel to immediately rescind orders for the evacuation of over 1 million people living north of Wadi Gaza”.
WHO has said the Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed them that it is “impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients without endangering their lives”.
It reported this evening that both of the hospitals in the North of Gaza have “greatly exceeded their combined 760-bed capacity” and is struggling to cope with “severe overcrowding”.
“Of the thousands of patients with injuries and other conditions receiving care in hospitals, there are hundreds that are severely wounded and over 100 who require critical care,” it said.
These are the sickest of the sick.”
Many thousands more, also with wounds or other health needs, cannot access any kind of care,” it added.
Speaking to Sky News this evening, Yousaf told the broadcaster that his four-year-old daughter has been asking if her grandmother will be returning, and if she is “still scared of the thunder”.
V powerful moment as a tired and emotional @HumzaYousaf sheds a tear explaining how his 4 year old daughter asks about speaking to her granny who is trapped in Gaza. @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/VbWWK23XDA
— Connor Gillies (@ConnorGillies) October 13, 2023
“She asked last night ‘Will Granny be back for Halloween?’ [...] My mother-in-law helps with the face painting every Halloween. We said ‘Of course, she will be back,’ but in my heart, I don’t know if she will,” Yousaf said.
During the emotional interview Yousaf cried when discussing how “powerless and helpless” he felt about the situation and accused the UK government of failing to help.
Yousaf said he wrote to Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and was “angry” and “disappointed” to receive no reply.
“He was in Israel and could have picked up the phone to me and made assurances about getting two UK citizens out,” said Yousaf, referring to Cleverly’s midweek visit to Israel.
In a separate interview with the BBC, the Scottish leader said that Israel was “going too far” with its response to the Hamas attack.
“Collective punishment cannot be justified,” said Yousaf, adding that innocent people were “paying an extraordinary price for those atrocious attacks that they have nothing to do with”.
Israel has declared war on Hamas and fired thousands of munitions at targets in Gaza, flattening entire neighbourhoods and sending residents fleeing for safety, since Saturday.
Yousaf said today that he has met with Palestinian leaders, who told him they want peace and an equal life.
I also met with Palestinian leaders from different faiths today. They want peace & they want the life of a Palestinian to be equal to the life of an Israeli.
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) October 13, 2023
I gave them my assurance that @scotgov will continue to call for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to be opened. https://t.co/JRVIdc6vQz
“I gave them my assurance that [The Scottish Government] will continue to call for a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor to be opened,” he said on X.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said Israeli forces are “setting in motion the mass forced displacement of more than 1.1 million people from Gaza city and the entire northern part of the Gaza Strip” with its order.
“It has sowed panic among the population and left thousands of internally displaced Palestinians now sleeping on the streets, not knowing where to flee to or where they can find safety amid a relentless bombing campaign by Israel and merciless collective punishment measures.
“This order must be rescinded immediately,” she added.
Press Association reported earlier today that authorities in Gaza have said that 70 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on convoys fleeing Gaza City.
Thousands of Palestinians have fled to southern Gaza in search of refuge today after Israel warned them to evacuate before an expected ground offensive against Hamas.
Keep up-to-date with the latest developments on the Israeli-Hamas conflict through The Journal’s liveblog.
Additional reporting from Press Association and © AFP 2023
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say