Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf said on Monday that the return of his parents-in-law from Gaza was "bittersweet", following their four-week ordeal under siege in the Palestinian territory.
Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, the parents of Yousaf's wife Nadia, became trapped in Gaza following Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel, and only managed to leave and enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing last Friday.
"They are of course delighted that they are here but they are heartbroken that they had to leave family behind in Gaza," the leader of the devolved government in Edinburgh told BBC Scotland.
He told reporters that his father-in-law had been forced to say numerous painful goodbyes when he left the territory last week.
"He was really broken by the fact that he had to say goodbye to his mother, to his son, to their grandchildren, as well -- the youngest of which is only three months old," Yousaf said.
His in-laws, who live in Dundee, northeast Scotland, were visiting relatives in Gaza when Israel declared war on Hamas after its gunmen killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Since then, Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Palestinian territory and sent in ground troops, with the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza saying more than 10,000 people have been killed, most of them women and children.
Yousaf, who in March became the first Muslim leader of a government in western Europe, had grown increasingly vocal over recent weeks about the desperate plight of his in-laws and others in Gaza.
On Monday, he said the situation they faced had been "incredibly desperate" and they had been forced to drink sea water after running out of supplies.
"We continue to watch the situation in Israel-Gaza with a lot of distress," the Scottish National Party (SNP) leader added, reiterating his call for an immediate ceasefire.
"This is a pivotal moment, frankly, for the international community," he said.
"You are either on the side of humanity calling for an immediate ceasefire or you are enabling the suffering of 2.2 million men, women and children, the vast majority of whom are innocent," the leader added.
The ruling Conservative government in the UK and the main Labour opposition have not joined calls for a ceasefire, arguing it would benefit Hamas, and instead called for "humanitarian pauses".
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