Scotland offers sanctuary to Gaza refugees, calls for international support

LONDON (AA) – Scotland is willing to be the first country in the UK to offer safety and sanctuary to refugees from Gaza, First Minister Humza Yousaf said after a deadly airstrike on a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday.

“There can be no justification for this. None whatsoever. If people cannot be safe in a hospital, where can they? This attack must be unequivocally condemned in the strongest possible manner,” he said on X

“In the past, people in Scotland and across the UK have opened our hearts and our homes. We’ve welcomed those from Syria, from Ukraine and many other countries…We must do so again,” he added.

“There are currently 1 million people displaced within Gaza. So therefore, I’m calling today on the international community to commit to our worldwide refugee program for the people of Gaza,” he added.

Highlighting the severe strain on healthcare facilities in Gaza, Yousaf shared a personal connection to the crisis, revealing that his brother-in-law, a doctor in Gaza, had witnessed scenes of absolute carnage.

“My brother-in-law is a doctor in Gaza. When we can get through to him on the phone, he tells us of scenes of absolute carnage, hospitals running out of medical supplies, doctors, nurses having to make the most difficult decision of all who to treat and who to let die. That can’t be allowed.”

In light of this, Yousaf made a plea for the UK government to support the medical evacuation of injured civilians in Gaza.

“I’m calling on the UK government to take two urgent steps. Firstly, they should immediately begin work on the creation of a refugee resettlement scheme for those in Gaza who want to and of course are able to leave. And when they do so, Scotland is willing to be the first country in the UK to offer safety and sanctuary to those who are caught up in these terrible attacks.”

“Scotland is ready to play her part in this, and our hospitals will treat the injured men women and children of Gaza, where we can,” he said.

More than 500 people have been killed in the Israeli airstrike at the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital Tuesday night, Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza, told Anadolu.

Footage showed bodies scattered across the hospital grounds.

The airstrike came on day 11 of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, with a growing international chorus of non-governmental groups and world leaders saying the Israeli bombing campaign on the besieged enclave — including healthcare facilities, schools, homes and houses of worship — violates international law and may constitute a war crime