Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law refuses to leave his doctor’s job in Gaza hospital because ‘people need me’, Scottish First Minister reveals
Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law has refused to leave his post working as an emergency doctor in Gaza telling his family ‘people need me’, the First Minister has revealed.
It comes days after the Scottish premier’s wife Nadia El-Nakla, an SNP councillor for Dundee City Council, revealed her family had been wounded by a shrapnel drone attack as fighting between Israel and Hamas erupted.
Her parents, Elizabeth and Maged, had travelled to the country a week before Hamas launched its surprise attack to visit Ms El-Nakla’s 92-year-old grandmother and her brother Mohammed El-Nakla – who is a doctor – and his family.
Over the last week, Dr El-Nakla has refused to leave the hospital he works at in the war-torn city, despite the pleads from his sister.
Sharing a heartbreaking video of his brother-in-law working to help a baby and a toddler hurt in the city, Mr Yousaf said: ‘My brother-in-law, a doctor in Gaza, is spending his seventh consecutive day in hospital.
Mr Yousaf tweeted: ‘My brother-in-law, a doctor in Gaza, is spending his seventh consecutive day in hospital’
In a video shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, the Scottish First Minister showed his brother-in-law working to help a wounded baby and toddler
Humza Yousaf’s brother-in-law has refused to leave his post working as an emergency doctor in Gaza telling his family ‘people need me’
READ HERE: Humza Yousaf’s tears for his wife Nadia El-Nakla as she describes going from ‘fearful to complete despair’ while her elderly parents shelter from Israeli bombs in Gaza and warns the Palestinian city is being ‘obliterated like never before’
‘Nadia spoke to him & said he should go home to rest, his response ‘I can’t leave my people when they need me.’ Health workers in Gaza are heroes.’
An Israeli missile struck a house across the road from where the El-Nakla family and 100 other people are staying, smashing all the windows and mirrors in the house on Tuesday.
It is understood that Mr Yousaf received a call about the attack 45 minutes after his speech to the SNP conference on Tuesday, where he told the crowd ‘My mother-in-law told me she just didn’t sleep a wink last night with worry’.
Earlier this week, Ms El-Nakla revealed that her brother had ‘started to say he can no longer treat anyone because there are no supplies and the dead are arriving.
With her parents in Gaza, Ms El-Nakla told how she ‘started this week extremely fearful’ and is now ‘ending this week in complete despair’.
Speaking at the SNP conference on Monday she said: ‘I’ve seen many wars in Gaza as I grew up, but nothing like this.’
She told the conference how people are now sleeping on football pitches near her family’s home, but added: ‘They still are dropping bombs on them.
Mr El-Nakla (left) helps two injured children at a hospital in Gaza
Ms El-Nakla’s parents, brother and his family remain in Gaza. Pictured: Nadia El-Nakla’s brother Mohammed El-Nakla and his wife Duas and one of their twin son
‘Morgues are full, we’re using ice cream trucks for the dead.’
Visiting Gaza herself every summer for several weeks, she said she has ‘experienced gunfire at our home, rocket attacks’, adding that on one occasion the house had been taken over by Israeli forces for three days who used the building as a lookout point.
Ms El-Nakla said: ‘We are used to suffering and being fearful, this time is different.
‘Normally once the death toll would reach a high enough number, the world would ask for restraint.
‘But the numbers of deaths are soaring, most children, and Gaza is being turned to rubble.
‘No food, no water, no electricity. We are seeing an attack on humanity and my heart feels like it is starting to turn to stone.’
Revealing her family had been caught in a drone attack, she spoke of her mother having to pull shrapnel from her young cousin’s skin fearing to go to the hospital which are low on medical supplies and deemed dangerous.
Nadia El-Nakla spoke at the SNP conference
Mr Yousaf used an interview ahead of the SNP conference, which starts today, to urge Israel, Egypt and other power-players to act to help civilians despite Hamas’s ‘barbarism’.
Yesterday, speaking in the House of Commons, SNP MP Chris Law said that Elizabeth had rang to say her final goodbyes in a call with her daughter and the First Minister that morning.
According to the MP, she said: ‘Last night was the end for me, better if my heart stops and then I will be at peace, I can’t take another night.’
Mr Yousaf has been urging for a ceasefire in the Middle East and earlier this week accused Israel of ‘going too far’ by inflicting ‘collective punishment’ on Gaza as it responds to Hamas’ atrocities.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn also joined the First Minister in calling for a ceasefire in the region, pressuring the Prime Minister on the issue and the creation of a refugee resettlement scheme in the UK.
‘My ask for a ceasefire was done with all sincerity, sincerity to protect civilians, but also to ensure that we have the safe creation of humanitarian corridors – humanitarian corridors which will allow for food, for water and for vital medicines to get into Gaza, but also for innocent civilians caught up in this terrible conflict to flee,’ Mr Flynn said.
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