HUMZA Yousaf has pleaded with the Prime Minister to take “meaningful action” in Gaza as he revealed a family member was killed by Israeli forces.
Speaking on Sky News on Tuesday, the former first minister was asked to discuss the genocide in Gaza, where he revealed that a relative was shot by Israeli forces as he collected flour from an aid point.
“It’s impossible for me to put it into words,” Yousaf, 40, said.
“Yesterday, we received some very sad news that my father-in-law’s cousin – who is only a few years older than me [and] has two children – was killed by the Israeli forces trying to get flour.
“His family begged him not to go to get food, but he couldn’t bear to see his family starving, so he went to get flour.”
Yousaf was visibly upset as he felt he had to point out that his in-law was “not Hamas”, nor a “terrorist”.
He described how Israeli forces “shot him in the stomach” before running over his body with a tank.
The former first minister went on to detail how his father-in-law was “inconsolable with grief” when he made contact.
Councillor Nadia El-Nakla’s cousin – whom she wrote about in The National just last week – was mentioned in the interview, with Yousaf saying her children had become “emaciated” as a result of the forced starvation in Gaza.
“I feel helpless”, he said.
“Choked with pain when I think of [how] they’re in pain. How can we possibly imagine what a Gazan mother or father must be going through, when they themselves are starving and watching their children become skeletons?
Yousaf pleaded with people to think about Gaza “as a father, a mother, or just a human being”.
“We must do everything in our gift to stop this atrocity. That’s why I plead with the Prime Minister – and I use that word, I plead with the Prime Minister – to take meaningful action.
“Sanctions, end all arms sales to Israel. Not necessarily for geopolitical reasons, but because I want to see an end to the inhumanity we’re all witnessing.”
His comments come as Keir Starmer announced the UK Government would recognise the state of Palestine in September if Israel committed to a two-state solution.
Starmer’s move has been widely criticised for its conditional nature, with the SNP and the Scottish Greens both urging that recognition of Palestine must not be “conditional”.
