Tearful Hamza Yousaf´s mother-in-law asks Where is humanity? as 'hospital cannot be evacuated' in Gaza. In sad vid shared by Humza Yousaf her mother-in-law can be seen crying saying 'One million' people in Gaza are left with 'No food and no water'.
Mr Yousaf hits out at 'far-right conspiracies' suggesting a conflict of interest. The £250k donation to UNRWA came a day before his in-laws were able to leave. READ MORE:Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf has hit out at 'Islamophobic attacks' on his family after he was accused of creating a conflict of interest by directing £250,000 of taxpayer cash to the UN's Gaza aid agency while his in-laws were trapped there.
The claims, for which Israel has provided no substantial evidence, have crippled the aid agency after 16 countries withdrew financial support following the allegations in January. The EU, Canada and Sweden have since vowed to resume donations. Mr Yousaf with his wife Nadia El-Nakla, an SNP councillor who was born to a Scottish mother and a Palestinian fatherMr Yousaf has angrily attacked the claims on social media, describing them as a 'far-right conspiracy' motivated by Islamophobia
'Whether funding was given to Unicef or UNRWA, both of course UN agencies, it was always for the people of Gaza. 'To peddle far-right conspiracies in a newspaper is outrageous & will only encourage a further pile-on of vile abuse my family & I have suffered throughout this period.' Hamas' actions sparked a months-long conflict that has reduced much of the region to rubble and displaced millions. It also trapped Mr and Mrs El-Nakla - whose daughter, Mr Yousaf's wife Nadia, is also an SNP councillor - in the war-torn territory.
And the next day on October 14 the Scottish Government announced its first UNRWA donation of £500,000. Two weeks later, Mr Yousaf clashed with his own advisors on where to send the next lump of financial aid. The UNRWA has also accused Israel of deliberately holding up aid deliveries into Gaza, and claims its soldiers have shot at aid convoys
The cash is reported to have come from the Scottish Government's International Development Fund, which is meant to be ring-fenced for projects in Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan.READ MORE: Pressure mounts on Israel over Gaza aid struck disaster after international outcry as IDF is accused of shooting desperate crowd
Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, says Mr Yousaf has 'questions to answer' over which he reneged on official advice, while Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the FM's actions 'seem like an unusual step'. 'The record shows the First Minister's actions were consistent with his obligations towards openness and honesty in the Scottish Ministerial Code.
Despite a lack of forthcoming evidence from Israel on its claims 16 countries, including the UK, halted financial support for the aid body. Around 1.7million Palestinians are reported to have been displaced by Israel's bombardment of the Gaza strip, many retreating to Rafah in the south The New York Times, which had sight of a draft UNRWA report into the allegations, said detainees had described being 'beaten, stripped, robbed, blindfolded, sexually abused and denied access to lawyers and doctors' by their Israeli captors.
'We are functioning hand-to-mouth. The fate of the agency, and the millions of people who depend on it, hang in the balance.'
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