First Minister Humza Yousaf has said he shed “tears of relief” after sharing the news that his in-laws would be coming home with his 14-year-old stepdaughter.
Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, the parents of Mr Yousaf’s wife Nadia, were named among 92 British nationals permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt on Friday morning.
The El-Naklas, from Dundee, were in Gaza visiting relatives when the conflict erupted, and Mr Yousaf has regularly shared updates on his family’s situation – including that they had to drink sea water due to a lack of clean resources.
Speaking to the PA news agency, Mr Yousaf said he and his wife were “hugely relieved” and the emotions they had felt over the last four weeks had come “spilling out”.
When the First Minister phoned his 14-year-old stepdaughter during a break at school on Friday, the pair both shared “a few tears” in relief at the news.
Mr Yousaf said: “That was a really special moment, being able to phone my eldest.
“We both shed a few tears and she’s just elated and really happy. She has been exceptionally worried.
“My four-year-old (Amal) we can protect her to an extent but my 14-year-old, Maya, knows everything, watches everything and it has been hugely distressing for her.”
The situation has taken its toll on Mr Yousaf and his family, but he thanked those who sent messages of support from across the political spectrum and around the world as well as his Scottish Government team.
Mr Yousaf added: “I wouldn’t be lying by saying the last four weeks have been, if not the most difficult four weeks of our lives, certainly amongst the most difficult four weeks of our lives.
“Every night we’ve gone to bed not sleeping because we’re worried about whether or not my mother and father-in-law are going to make it through the night.
“There were moments we thought that was it. We were just bereft really at the grief, thinking they had been killed.”
Ms El-Nakla is currently trying to organise flights from Egypt for her parents, so it is not yet clear when they will arrive back in Scotland.
Calls for a ceasefire have increased over the last week, with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and London mayor Sadiq Khan joining the First Minister’s calls.
But the UK government insist a ceasefire will give Hamas the opportunity to attack “indiscriminately”.
Every night we've gone to bed not sleeping because we're worried about whether or not my mother and father in law are going to make it through the night
Mr Yousaf said he did not accept that a “humanitarian pause” is a “justifiable response” to thousands of men, women and children being killed.
He added: “All it does is stop innocent children being bombed for a period but then accepts you would have to resume that, and that’s not an acceptable response to me.
“What we’re not going to do is stop the suffering in the long term if all we do is kill innocent civilians.”
