HUMZA Yousaf's mother-in-law has told him she is down to just six bottles of clean drinking water in a house of 100 people including a two-month old baby in Gaza.
The First Minister told journalists he is “pleading” with the UK Government to demand the Rafah border in the south of the Gaza Strip is opened on behalf of his mother-in-law Elizabeth El-Nakla.
Yousaf took a call from her on Monday morning when she told him they are living in what she describes as "torture" with missiles and rocket fire blasting right through the night, not knowing if they are going to make it from one day to the next.
He reiterated his calls for a ceasefire and for the Rafah crossing - the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip - to be opened.
He said: "I took call from my mother-in-law [this morning] and it's a terrible situation. They are still utterly devastated. They are really living in a situation my mother-in-law describes as torture.
"The whole night there will be missiles, rocket fire, drones. They don't know if they are going to make it from one night to the next.
"They are down to six bottles of clean drinking water in a house of 100 people including a two-month old baby."
The Rafah border crossing opened on Saturday to allow aid trucks to enter Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war erupted but it was not clear how long it would stay open.
There are only two other border crossings from and into the Gaza Strip - Erez, a crossing between Israel and northern Gaza, and Kerem Shalom, a solely commercial goods junction with Israel in southern Gaza. Both are shut.
The FM added: “She’s asking me, she’s pleading with me, and I’m pleading with the UK Government, not to just ask for the border to be opened, but to demand that Rafah crossing is opened and there’s a ceasefire right now.
“Because above and beyond my mother-in-law and father-in-law who are two people, there’s 2.2 million people in Gaza, the vast majority are innocent men, women and children, nothing to do with Hamas or their terrible terrorist atrocities, who are suffering.
“Every single one of us has seen the images, we’ve all seen the pictures, we’re all heartbroken and yet there is no ceasefire.
“People who want to leave should be allowed to leave and we need far more aid than a trickle of 15 or 20 trucks going in every single day, so I hope the international community will step up their efforts to help the innocent people of Gaza.”
