AFP — Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf on Monday said his wife’s parents have been caught up in the aftermath of Hamas’s weekend attack on Israel.
Yousaf’s wife Nadia El-Nakla is Palestinian and her parents, who live in Dundee, northeast Scotland, were visiting family in Gaza.
“They’ve been in Gaza and are currently trapped in Gaza, I’m afraid,” he told reporters.
Yousaf, who in March became the first Muslim leader of a government in western Europe, said the Israeli authorities had told his parents-in-law to leave but not guaranteed safe passage.
“I’m in a situation where, frankly, night by night, day by day, we don’t know whether or not my mother-in-law and father-in-law, who have nothing to do, as most Gazans don’t, with Hamas or with any terror attack… will make it through the night or not,” he said.
He added: “We cannot sleep. We are constantly watching our phones.”
Yousaf condemned the Hamas attack and said his concerns would be mirrored by Scotland’s Jewish community and their worries for family.
“Innocent civilians” on both sides “are paying the price”, he added.