Yousaf says family face ‘impossible situation’ to flee Gaza

Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf has said his relatives in Gaza are in an “impossible situation” after being told to leave the region amid ongoing fighting.

Mr Yousaf said his brother-in-law Mohammed El-Nakla, a doctor working at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, has no way of reaching the Rafah crossing into Egypt with his wife and four children, the youngest of whom is just four months old.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Yousaf said: “My brother-in-law, his wife & four children (the youngest is four months old) have been told they can leave Gaza through Rafah. The problem is, they have no way of getting there, and even if they did, the fighting is ongoing.

“An impossible situation.

“We need a ceasefire now.”

Mr Yousaf has been calling for a full ceasefire since the conflict began with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.

His parents-in-law, Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, recently returned to Dundee after becoming trapped in Gaza when the Israeli retaliation began while they were visiting relatives.

They were eventually able to flee through the Rafah border crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip. They had spent two weeks in a house where 100 people were sheltering, including a two-month-old, and were forced to leave their relatives, including their son Mohammed and his grandmother.

Gaza remains under intense attack from Israel as it attempts to dismantle the Hamas terror attack, aid supplies have dwindled and road closures have been enforced, according to the United Nations humanitarian aid office.

Mr Yousaf previously shared information on the hospital his brother-in-law works at, saying the situation there is “petrifying”.

He shared a post on X by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organisation, who said Nasser Hospital is three times over capacity and conditions are “beyond inadequate”.