ABERDEEN: Scotland’s leader Humza Yousaf said his wife’s parents were fast running out of food and drinking water in Gaza and could die if unable to leave soon.
Yousaf’s parents-in-law live in Scotland but were visiting relatives in Gaza when Hamas militants poured into Israel and killed 1,300 people last weekend.
Israel has responded with retaliatory strikes killing some 2,750 people and a total blockade on the Palestinian enclave that has kept aid out and foreign passport-holders in.
Yousaf, 38, said Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla had limited themselves to an egg a day and sips of clean water as they rationed food so there was enough for their grandchildren.
“Their supplies are going to run out very soon. They are down to their last rations ... They are obviously thinking about the kids,” he told Reuters in an interview, citing information gleaned from short calls over patchy phone lines.
“If the border is not reopened, and there is no way out, people will die ... My parents (in law) — I don’t think I will see them again.”
Yousaf, the first Muslim leader of a Western European country in modern times, said Israel had a right to defend itself and expressed “absolute” sympathy for Hamas’ victims.
He visited a synagogue in Scotland last week to comfort the family of a Jewish man who died in Israel, telling them: “Your grief is my grief.”
“Collective punishment”
But he said Israel was imposing an illegal form of collective punishment, and rebuked the British government for giving such robust support to Israel immediately after the attack, without questioning its response.
“There is no doubt that collective punishment is a breach of international law,” he said. “I don’t know why people are dancing around on that issue. There are rules of engagement.”
Scotland has a semi-autonomous government, which is in charge of issues such as health and education. Foreign policy is controlled by the British government in London.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told parliament on Monday that Israel must defend itself in line with international humanitarian law. Diplomatic efforts are continuing to get aid into the enclave as food, fuel and water run short.
“If we do not act as an international community, it will be a significant stain on our conscience for many years to come,” said Yousaf, whose wife was born in Dundee to a Palestinian father and Scottish mother.
He added that his brother-in-law, who works as a doctor, is having to make decisions about who should be treated, while the hospitals in Gaza run out of body bags.
“They are now having to make that dreadful, horrendous decision about who to treat and who to let die,” he said.
Yousaf points to his own background — born in Glasgow, with a father from Pakistan and mother from Kenya — and views as examples of the inclusive, socially liberal and multi-ethnic Scotland that his Scottish National Party seeks to promote.
Scottish leader says wife’s parents risk running out of food in Gaza
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Scottish leader says wife’s parents risk running out of food in Gaza
- “Their supplies are going to run out very soon. They are down to their last rations ... They are obviously thinking about the kids,” he said
Gazans salvage ancient books in mosque library damaged by war
- The Great Omari Mosque library sustained terrible damaged during the war in Gaza
- The mosque now stands largely ruined, with its library littered with rubble and dust
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Inside the dusty shell of one of the oldest libraries in the Palestinian territories, a group of Gazan volunteers work diligently to salvage what remains of their ancient cultural heritage.
The Great Omari Mosque library sustained terrible damaged during the war in Gaza, which erupted in October 2023 and devastated swathes of the Palestinian territory, including cultural and religious sites.
The mosque — in the old town of Gaza City — now stands largely ruined, with its library littered with rubble and dust.
“I was shocked and stunned when I saw the extent of the destruction in the library,” Haneen Al-Amsi told AFP, saying the scenes of devastation had spurred her to help launch the restoration initiative.
Amsi, who heads the Eyes on Heritage Volunteer Foundation, said the western part of the library was burned when the mosque was hit, causing irreversible damage.
“The library was estimated to contain about 20,000 books, but currently we are left with fewer than 3,000 or 4,000,” she explained.
Among the debris, volunteers hoping to restore the collection pored over charred fragments of manuscript and shards of yellowed paper.
“The library of the Great Omari Mosque is considered the third largest library in Palestine after the Al-Aqsa Mosque library and the Ahmed Pasha Al-Jazzar library,” Amsi said.
“It is an important historical library that contains original manuscripts and a diverse collection of books on jurisprudence, medicine, Islamic law, literature and various other subjects.”
Gaza’s history stretches back thousands of years, making the tiny territory a treasure trove of archaeological artefacts from past civilizations including Canaanites, Egyptians, Persians and Greeks.
But more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas took a heavy toll on Gaza’s heritage sites.
As of January 2026, the UN’s cultural agency UNESCO, had verified damage to 150 sites since the start of the war on October 7, 2023 sparked by Hamas’s attack on Israel.
These include 14 religious sites and 115 buildings of historical or artistic interest.
- ‘Represent history’ -
Inside one of the library’s old stone rooms, one woman used a paintbrush to dust off an old tome, while other volunteers wearing facemasks and gloves crouched on the floor to leaf through piles of books.
“The condition of the rare and historical books is deplorable due to their being left for more than 700 to 800 days,” Amsi said, talking of “immense damage and gunpowder residue” on the volumes.
An independent United Nations commission said in June 2025 that Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in Gaza amounted to war crimes.
“Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed more than half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a report.
Israel rejected the commission as “an inherently biased and politicized mechanism of the Human Rights Council” and said the report was “another attempt to promote its fictitious narrative of the Gaza war.”
For Amsi, the importance of restoring the books lay in preserving crucial historic records.
“These books represent the history of the city and bear witness to historical events,” she said.
