Pro-Palestinian protests have been held across the UK amid growing concern for the safety of civilians trapped in Gaza. Scotland’s first minister, Humza Yousaf, has appealed for a ceasefire and revealed that he does not know if his family in Gaza are alive or dead, as the area remains under a communications blackout. He told BBC Scotland that his parents-in-law had not been heard from since before Israeli tanks entered Gaza on Friday. Elizabeth El-Nakla and Maged El-Nakla had visited the territory to see relatives prior to the latest round of Hamas attacks.
The UK protests come as Israel has expanded its strikes for the third week after the latest cross-border bomb attack by Hamas, which killed 1,400 people and led to the kidnappings of a further 229. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in cities including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee, Manchester, Belfast and London, calling for an immediate end to the violence. Dr Ibrahim Khadra, a Palestinian academic who works at Strathclyde University, said that 42 of his family members had been killed during the conflict while many of his cousins and uncles were unaccounted for.
Scotland’s first minister argued that the people of Gaza were being unfairly “punished…for a crime they did not commit”. This was echoed in the UK groups’ call for an end to the violence. The phone lines and internet in Gaza are currently down for most people, which has left many international families with no news, leading to worrying time for anyone with relatives in the area
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