Scotland’s first minister says Israel is ‘going too far’ and ‘collective punishment cannot be justified’

Humza Yousaf said people who have ‘nothing to do with Hamas’ are ‘paying an extraordinary price’ for the attacks on Israel

Humza Yousaf has warned that Israel is “going too far” with its retaliatory strikes on Gaza, adding that “collective punishment cannot be justified”.

The first minister of Scotland said “innocent men, women, children and babies” have “nothing to do with Hamas” but are paying an “extraordinary price” for the “atrocious” attacks on Israel.

Tel Aviv has issued an evacuation order to Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip, with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) poised to initiate a ground assault.

The UN has warned the evacuation cannot be achieved without “devastating humanitarian consequences”.

Israel has also cut off food, water and electricity to Gaza in response to the attack on Saturday and has carried out numerous airstrikes in the region.

It comes a week after a Hamas attack saw militants parachute into Israel and gun down hundreds of innocent victims in a horrifying display of indiscriminate violence.

In an interview ahead of his party’s annual conference, Mr Yousaf said collective punishment “is to be condemned, regardless of who the victim is”.

The SNP leader was asked whether he agreed with Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, who said Israel is engaging in collective punishment and does not have the right to breach international law in its response in Gaza.

Mr Yousaf told the BBC: “I agree with the Taoiseach wholeheartedly.

“Nobody has said that Israel does not have the right to protect itself from terror. All of us have said that, myself included, but collective punishment cannot be justified.

“They are going too far, collective punishment cannot be justified. It is innocent men, women, children, babies, with nothing to do with Hamas, who are paying an extraordinary price for those atrocious attacks, that they have nothing to do with.”

And, asked whether a potential ground invasion of Gaza by Israel would be justified, Mr Yousaf said: “Innocent men, women and children… cannot be simply thought of as collateral damage.

“The ends cannot simply justify the means. Collective punishment is not justified. In fact, it is to be condemned, regardless of where it takes place, and regardless of who is the victim of that collective punishment.”

His comments come as his mother-in-law Elizabeth El-Nakla is trapped in Gaza, having travelled from her home in Scotland last week to visit family with her husband Maged.

In an emotional video from the strip on Friday morning, she said: “Everybody from Gaza is moving towards where we are.

“One million people, no food, no water – and still they’re bombing them as they’re leaving.

“Where are you going to put them? But my thought is – all these people in the hospital cannot be evacuated.

“Where is humanity? Where’s people’s hearts in the world, to let this happen in this day and age?”

In a post alongside the video, Mr Yousaf said: “This is Elizabeth El-Nakla. She is my mother-in-law. A retired nurse from Dundee, Scotland.

“She, like the vast majority of people in Gaza, has nothing to do with Hamas. She has been told to leave Gaza but, like the rest of the population, is trapped with nowhere to go.”

Mr Yousaf also told Sky News that Rishi Sunak has not spoken to him about the crisis, despite his mother-in-law being trapped in Gaza.

He said he wrote to James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, about the situation with his mother-in-law and was “angry” and “disappointed” to receive no reply: “He was in Israel and could have picked up the phone to me and made assurances about getting two UK citizens out.”

Mr Yousaf said he feels “powerless and helpless” and that his wife Nadia is in “total distress”.