HUMZA Yousaf’s mother-in-law said “her goodbyes” in a panicked call to the First Minister and his wife early on Sunday morning following a false alarm, he has said.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg from the SNP conference in Aberdeen, where he is set to speak for the first time since being made party leader, the First Minister said: “Last night was a very difficult night, if I’m honest.
“We got a call at one in the morning from my mother in law in a panic.”
Someone in the neighbourhood where they live, he said, had been told to evacuate their home because it was due to be hit, leaving neighbours “running to goodness and God knows where”.
“You can imagine the panic, and my mother-in-law was even saying her goodbyes, which was pretty hard to hear.”
The alert, however, was a “false alarm”, the First Minister said.
Yousaf also backed a programme that would allow Palestinians and Israelis to flee to the UK.
Asked about such a move, he said he “absolutely” supports it.
He added: “There’s many people who are worried about their relatives – Jewish, Muslim, Christian, atheist, agnostic – whether it’s those that are captured by Hamas or whether it’s those like my own family in Gaza.”
He went on to reiterate his calls for the opening of a humanitarian corridor to allow supplies to reach civilians in Gaza, as well as calling on the international community to deal with the “root cause” of the hostilities in the region.
“We have to, of course, bring people to the UK if we are able to, but also, if we want to stop this perpetual cycle of violence… then we also have to say unequivocally, and there should be no controversy about this statement, that an Israeli life and a Palestinian life are equal.
“We have to make sure that we never lose sight of that.”
