'How you sleep at night?': Scottish leader voices concern for Gaza residents

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - Scotland's First Minister, Humza Yousaf again voiced deep concern Saturday for innocent victims, particularly children, who continue to bear the brunt of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.

“My concern is for all the innocent people suffering for a crime they did not commit," he wrote on X. "If you did not vote for peace, while children are dying, then I do not know how you sleep at night.”

"Thank you for your good wishes, I'm afraid we have not heard from my in-laws," he also wrote, in reference to his mother-in-law, Elizabeth El-Nakla, and her husband, Maged, who traveled to Gaza from Scotland to visit a sick relative.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution Friday that called for an "urgent, durable, and permanent humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, urging the cessation of hostilities.”

The resolution, brought by Jordan and co-sponsored by nearly 50 countries, including Türkiye, was voted on during a special emergency session of the 193-member UN General Assembly.

The resolution passed 120 - 14, with 45 abstentions.

The conflict escalated dramatically in Gaza after an unprecedented Oct. 7 attack involving rockets and sending hundreds of fighters into Israeli towns.

The Palestinian resistance said the incursion was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

The Israeli military retaliated with airstrikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

At least 7,326 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli attacks, while the death toll in Israel stands at more than 1,400.

Gaza's 2.3 million residents are grappling with shortages of food, water, and medicine due to Israel’s massive air bombardment and total blockade of the enclave.