SCOTTISH leader Humza Yousaf’s wife has accused Israel of “terrorising” Gaza where everyone is “waiting to die” ahead of Tel Aviv’s expected ground offensive on the Palestinian territory.
Israel launched a war on the Hama militant group which infiltrated the country’s southern region and killed at least 1400 Israelis. Tel Aviv conducted air strikes on the Gaza Strip and ordered a blockade of essentials entering the territory while declaring it would conduct ground operations.
Nadia El-Nakla who unexpectedly appeared on stage at an SNP conference in Aberdeen on Sunday (15) said people in Gaza, including her family members, were forced to say goodbye to one another “like it’s the last time”.
The psychotherapist said her mother Elizabeth and Palestine-born father Maged who both travelled from Dundee to Gaza to meet her 93-year-old grandmother were “trapped” there following Israel’s response to the Hamas actions.
Her doctor brother in Gaza was unable to treat injured people in the face of shortages of medical supplies, she said, adding that ice trucks were used as makeshift mortuaries.
On Friday (13), Yousaf, Scotland’s first minister, posted a video from Elizabeth who condemned Israel’s order to evacuate more than one million people from northern Gaza. “This will be my last video” Elizabeth was heard saying in the video.
At an SNP fringe event, El-Nakla wondered why the UK government was “enabling” Israel’s military action on Gaza.
“For me, I’m not sure why… Israel has one of the strongest and most advanced armies in the world and I’m just not sure why they need more support,” she said.
“The UK is enabling the behaviour of Israel, but gaslighting us at the same time.”
She said she had seen many wars in Gaza while growing up, “but nothing like this.”
Because of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, “we’re using ice cream trucks for the dead,” she said.
The Dundee councillor also said she had offered her condolences to grieving Israeli families following the Hamas attack.
