LONDON: Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, has issued an impassioned message following the death of a relative in Gaza.
Yousaf, the veteran Scottish National Party politician, posted a video on Thursday in which he and his wife Nadia El-Nakla described what had happened to a member of her extended family, Ahmed, who was killed while trying to find supplies for his children.
“We want to give you an update from my cousin Sally, in Gaza,” El-Nakla said in the video message. “His wife asked him not to go, and not to leave them. But he said, ‘No, I have to go this time, I have to provide food that we need, I have to provide milk for my child. I have to go. I’ll only go this one time, and I’m not going to go again.’ And actually, this was the last time he went, because they killed him.”
The couple said Ahmed was killed in the vicinity of an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel and the US.
Yousaf said: “Sally goes on to say, what the world needs to know is that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is like a trick to kill the largest number of Palestinians every day.
“Every day, around 100 Palestinians are killed there, trying to get food. Our men, our women, our children.”
El-Nakla said: “This is Gaza. This is a genocide, and the world is backing these facilities. Famine has been declared, yet aid is blocked while the foundation profits from their hunger.
“Food, water and medicine must be allowed in through real aid agencies, and the world must not look away.”
The GHF has come in for significant international criticism since it began operations in Gaza. It was initially given sole responsibility to distribute aid by Israel after the UN and other groups were denied access to the Palestinian enclave.
Thousands of Palestinians have been shot and killed at the GHF’s four distribution sites since May by contractors and Israeli soldiers, while its poor logistical operations have been blamed by aid agencies for contributing to famine in Gaza.
Earlier this month, UN experts said innocent civilians were “paying the ultimate price of the international community’s legal, political and moral failure” over the GHF’s activities.
Yousaf, who resigned as Scotland’s first minister in May 2024, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza since its outbreak in October 2023.
Numerous members of El-Nakla’s family, including her parents, were caught up in the invasion, and the pair have consistently raised awareness of the humanitarian situation in the enclave throughout the war.