HUMZA Yousaf and his wife Nadia El-Nakla have said that their family in Gaza is starving, as they issued a plea to those in power to open the borders and let aid flow in.
The former first minister shared a video on social media on Wednesday, where the pair said the stories they were hearing from El-Nakla's side of the family in Gaza were "sickening" and "gut-wrenching".
They added that while governments "might stay silent" and refuse to act, "we won't".
It comes as more than 100 aid organisations warned of “mass starvation” in Gaza with more than two million people facing shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of brutal bombardment by Israel.
The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US-and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect side-lining the existing UN-led system.
In the video, El-Nakla says: "My cousin Sally, her husband and four children are starving. My aunt Hanan, her children and grandchildren, including a seven-month-old baby, are being starved."
Nadia's cousin Sally, and her four children are being starved by Israel. Millions in Gaza are being deliberately starved while Israel withholds food mere kilometres away. Words are not enough. Governments must act and force Israel to open the borders and allow aid to flow in. pic.twitter.com/MqaabT5sQQ
— Humza Yousaf (@HumzaYousaf) July 23, 2025
Yousaf adds: "Sally is one of millions in Gaza. Her husband goes out all day searching for food, often to come home with nothing – and when I say home, I mean a tent in almost 40 degree heat."
El-Nakla then says: "Yesterday my family's town, Deir Al Balah, was hit hard and starving people were being forced to run while being shot and bombed."
"In Gaza, doctors are becoming too weak to treat patients, journalists too weak to report the silent killer of forced starvation," Yousaf adds.
El-Nakla goes on: "This is a deliberate starvation of the Palestinian people. Food and water are mere kilometres away.
"This form of warfare is sickening and the stories and images from my family and millions of others in Gaza are absolutely gut-wrenching.
"Can you imagine not being able to feed your children, yet knowing the food you so desperately need is only a few miles away?"
Yousaf continues: "Fathers like me, parents like us, children like ours, being starved, displaced, bombed, all while the world watches.
"Governments might stay silent. They may refuse to act, but we won't."
El-Nakla concludes: "Sally's life matters. Palestinian lives matter. And I am begging those who have the power to open the borders to do so now and let the people of Gaza live."
Pressure is continuing to ramp up on the UK Government to take action over Israel’s starvation of [[Gaza]] – including from voices which have, until now, remained largely silent.
The National reported earlier on Wednesday on a harrowing front page by the right-wing Daily Express, which featured an image of a starving one-year old child in Gaza accompanied by the headline “for pity’s sake stop this now”.
A sub-heading detailed how the child Muhammad Zakariya Ayyoub al-Matouq was “clinging on to life” and how his suffering “shames us all”.
