HUMZA Yousaf has shared heartbreaking messages from his family in Palestine who say they are "just waiting their turn" to be caught up in Israeli air strikes.
The Justice Secretary shared a video where he read out texts from his wfe and long-serving SNP activist Nadia El-Nakla’s brother Mohammad, who is currently in Deir Al Balah in Gaza.
Yousaf said that he wanted to bring a “flavour” of the “human tragedy” on the ground as the death toll in Gaza nears 200 and multiple buildings have been flattened.
It comes after thousands of Scots took to the streets in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen and other cities across the UK in support of Palestine over the weekend.
READ MORE: My family is being bombed in Palestine – and yet the West does nothing
Taking to Facebook, Yousaf explained that El-Nakla’s brother Mohammad, her grandmother, and nieces and nephews, all aged under 5, are currently in Gaza.
The heartbreaking messages reveal that the family are struggling to eat and sleep as the terror unfolds around them.
Yousaf said: “We’ve been messaging Mohammad, her brother and family, as you’d imagine every day, multiple times a day, to find out how they’re getting on. And I thought the easiest thing to do would be to read you some of the messages he sent over the last few days.
“So yesterday we asked how he’s getting on and the response was, ‘It’s very bad. We can’t sleep. We can’t eat. We have no option that we are living targets’, and this bit got me, he said, ‘We are just waiting our turn’.”
Yousaf added that he had asked how his niece Leila, two years old, and twin nephews, who are around four or five-years-old, were handling the crisis.
Quoting his brother-in-law, Yousaf said: “‘The boys understand everything, they see the news, you can’t hide the truth. Whether the bomb goes off in the south of Gaza or the north of Gaza we hear it as we’re in the middle of the Gaza strip. Most of the buildings have been destroyed, over 150 dead and the story never ends’. Again he repeats, ‘We are just waiting our turn’.”
READ MORE: Thousands of people join 'Free Palestine' protests across the UK
According to Mohammad, his daughter Leila has been screaming constantly, the young boys are also crying and constantly having to cover their ears, while their dad “feels the terror in his bones”.
Yousaf ended the video by saying: “That’s just one family, that’s just our family and in Gaza how many countless others, millions suffering and that is the human cost and the human tragedy of what is unfolding in Gaza.
“So you know when this story drops off the news agenda, I hope that people will remember the human impact of those who have had their houses raised to the ground and have lost multiple family members.
“I hope that actually they are not forgotten and all this and the international community, if such a thing really does exist, has to ensure that they are part of the rebuilding effort.”
Israel and Hamas have continued to trade fire as the air strikes and bombings enter a second week. Israel have claimed the air strikes were on militant targets in Gaza, levelling a six-story building in Gaza City, while Palestinian militants fired dozens on rockets into Israel.
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