“They are running out of water, and trying to take cover from the Israeli bombing,” is how Scotland's Prime Minister, Hamza Yousef, describes the situation of his wife's parents who are trapped in Gaza. The two were stuck in the Strip after the attack carried out by Hamas inside Israel and the start of the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

The Scottish National Party said the experience amounted to "torture" for two members of the Prime Minister's family, who live in Dundee.

The Scottish Prime Minister renewed, more than once, his call to the British government to seek to allow safe passage of civilians out of Gaza.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that he is working with Israel and Egypt to open the Rafah crossing, which connects Egypt to the Gaza Strip, to help British citizens leave the region.

Elizabeth Al-Nakhla and her husband Majed, the parents of Nadia, wife of Scottish Prime Minister Hamza Yousef, arrived in Gaza to visit a sick relative.

As for Youssef, he was visiting the flood-hit town of Brechin in Angus, Scotland, when he moved away from his advisors to receive a phone call, only to later reveal that it was a call from his wife’s mother in Gaza.

Youssef told BBC Scotland News: "The situation is catastrophic; it is a nightmare for us, and torture for them. They cannot sleep, and of course they are worried that the house they are staying in might be bombed."

Youssef said that the couple only has six bottles of drinking water, and they live in a house where at least 100 people are sheltering, including a two-month-old child.

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The Scottish Prime Minister urged the British government to demand the opening of the Rafah crossing "to allow foreign nationals and other innocent men, women and children in Gaza - who have no connection to Hamas - to leave."

On Saturday, 20 aid trucks from Egypt crossed into Gaza for the first time in two weeks, and activists described these supplies as “a drop in the ocean” of what is needed to provide relief to the residents of the Strip, which Israel is imposing a siege on, and decided to completely cut off water, electricity, and fuel.

Youssef said: "We are seeing aid flowing, but it is far less than what is needed. The borders must be opened to allow people to leave because there are many innocent men, women and children, not just my wife's parents, as many, many innocent men, women and children are suffering greatly."

Last Friday, Youssef posted a video clip on his account on the “X” platform, of his mother-in-law saying: “This will be my last video. Everyone in Gaza is heading towards us, and there are a million people without food or water. And they are still bombing them during their displacement. Where are they?” "We'll put them in?"

She added: “My thoughts now are on those people in the hospital, who cannot be evacuated.

Where is the humanity? Where are the hearts of people in the world to allow things like this to happen in this day and age? Please God help us. Farewell".

Israel began air strikes on the Gaza Strip after about 1,400 people were killed in Israel in an attack carried out by Hamas.

On the other hand, more than 5,000 Palestinians were killed in the past two weeks in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli bombing, according to the Ministry of Health in the Strip.

United Nations agencies have warned that Gaza is experiencing a stifling humanitarian crisis, even before the recent hostilities, and it actually needs about 500 trucks per day to deliver vital supplies to the besieged population.

About 1.2 million people, out of a population of 2.2 million living in the Strip, were already relying on food aid provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, before October 7.

An Israeli army spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would increase “strikes” in order to “reduce the risks” to Israeli forces in the next stages of the war.

Massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations took place in various parts of the United Kingdom on Sunday, including a demonstration in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city.

Source: BBC