The mother-in-law of Scottish Prime Minister Hamza Yousef appeared in a video on social media platforms appealing to the world to save the people trapped in Gaza by the war waged by the Israeli occupation on the Gaza Strip.
On Friday, Hamza Youssef posted a video on his X account in which his mother-in-law said, "This will be my last video. Everyone in Gaza is heading towards us. A million people have no food, no water. They continue to bomb them during their displacement. Where are we going to put them?"
"My thoughts are about these people in the hospital. They cannot be evacuated. Where is humanity. Where are the hearts of people in the world. To allow things like this to happen in this era. May God help us. Goodbye."
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
Hamza captioned the video: "This is my mother-in-law Elizabeth al-Nakhla, a retired nurse from Dundee in Scotland, who, like the vast majority of people in Gaza, has nothing to do with Hamas, has been asked to leave Gaza, but like the rest of the population, she is besieged and has nowhere to go."
On Monday, Yousef spoke to local media about the siege of his Palestinian wife's parents in Gaza, saying, "My wife's parents, who live in Dundee, Scotland, were in Gaza to visit my wife's sick 92-year-old grandmother, when the recent developments in Israel and Gaza occurred, and they were stuck there."
He added that the Israelis asked them to leave the country, but that was not possible, pointing out that the British Foreign Office will not be able to give guarantees of safe passage.
Nadia al-Nakhleh, wife of the Scottish prime minister, spoke of the fear experienced by her parents trapped in the Gaza Strip, telling British media: "They are very terrified about what is coming and what is happening now."
Hamza Yusuf, a 37-year-old Scottish Muslim of Pakistani descent, took over from Nicola Sturgeon, who resigned as party and government leader in March 2023.
In 2019, Hamza married Palestinian-born Nadia al-Nakhleh, a psychotherapist who is also an activist for the Scottish National Party and a member of Dundee City Council, and they had their daughter Amal.
For the seventh day, the Gaza Strip, besieged since 2006, has been subjected to intensive Israeli air strikes that have destroyed entire neighborhoods and caused thousands of deaths and injuries among Palestinian civilians.