Humza Yousaf’s wife has told of the moment when she thought her family had been killed in an airstrike in Gaza.
Nadia El-Nakla’s parents are in Gaza along with her grandmother, her brother and his children.
Since electricity was cut in the region and international media left, El-Nakla said she has mainly been relying on updates from social media.
“I saw a post that Deir al-Balah, where I’m from, is under attack,” she told STV News.
Handout“I went on to Al-Jazeera Live and I could see the bombs being dropped.
“I quickly tried to phone my dad and my mum. Both their phones were disconnected and in that moment I just thought the worst.
“I was just petrified because I didn’t know what was happening and I didn’t know whose home had been hit.
“It’s the first moment I thought, this has happened, they’re not with us anymore.”
El-Nakla’s husband, the First Minister, was being interviewed at the time.
In the early minutes of the interview in the drawing room of his official residence at Bute House, El-Nakla entered, sobbing, telling the Yousaf she could not contact her family, whom they had been speaking to just hours before.
El-Nakla’s mum was eventually able to call her and confirmed they were safe.
Yousaf said: “Her mum has got a message through saying, ‘our neighbourhood is being hit, we haven’t been hit yet’.”
But the family have lost friends, including a baby, in the bombings, she said.
El-Nakla’s brother is a doctor in Gaza. She said he is terrified by what he has seen in hospitals.
“They’re at breaking point in terms of medical supplies,” she said.
“They have no fuel. Their water is cut. They have no electricity. This is a dire, desperate situation.”
Yousaf said: “The Israeli government know where our family is, they know the co-ordinates, to that extent, so my hope is that they won’t be hit.”
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