First Minister and SNP leader Humza Yousaf embraces his wife councillor Nadia El-Nakla after she spoke on an emergency motion on Israel-Palestinians during the SNP annual conference at The Event Complex Aberdeen (TECA) in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Oct. 15.Jane Barlow/The Associated Press
Scotland’s leader Humza Yousaf said his wife’s parents were fast running out of food and drinking water in Gaza and could die if unable to leave soon.
Yousaf’s parents-in-law live in Scotland but were visiting relatives in Gaza when Hamas militants poured into Israel and killed 1,300 people last weekend.
Israel has responded with retaliatory strikes killing some 2,750 people and a total blockade on the Palestinian enclave that has kept aid out and foreign passport-holders in.
Yousaf, 38, said Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla had limited themselves to an egg a day and sips of clean water as they rationed food so there was enough for their grandchildren.
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“Their supplies are going to run out very soon. They are down to their last rations … They are obviously thinking about the kids,” he told Reuters in an interview, citing information gleaned from short calls over patchy phone lines.
“If the border is not reopened, and there is no way out, people will die … My parents (in law) – I don’t think I will see them again.”
Yousaf, the first Muslim leader of a Western European country in modern times, said Israel had a right to defend itself and expressed “absolute” sympathy for Hamas’ victims.
He visited a synagogue in Scotland last week to comfort the family of a Jewish man who died in Israel, telling them: “Your grief is my grief”.
But he said Israel was imposing an illegal form of collective punishment, and rebuked the British government for giving such robust support to Israel immediately after the attack, without questioning its response.
“There is no doubt that collective punishment is a breach of international law,” he said. “I don’t know why people are dancing around on that issue. There are rules of engagement.”
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Scotland has a semi-autonomous government, which is in charge of issues such as health and education. Foreign policy is controlled by the British government in London.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told parliament on Monday that Israel must defend itself in line with international humanitarian law. Diplomatic efforts are continuing to get aid into the enclave as food, fuel and water run short.
“If we do not act as an international community, it will be a significant stain on our conscience for many years to come,” said Yousaf, whose wife was born in Dundee to a Palestinian father and Scottish mother.
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He added that his brother-in-law, who works as a doctor, is having to make decisions about who should be treated, while the hospitals in Gaza run out of body bags.
“They are now having to make that dreadful, horrendous decision about who to treat and who to let die,” he said.
Yousaf points to his own background – born in Glasgow, with a father from Pakistan and mother from Kenya – and views as examples of the inclusive, socially liberal and multi-ethnic Scotland that his Scottish National Party seeks to promote.