Humza Yousaf has said his family in Gaza are drinking water obtained from the sea in order to survive.
The first minister said the family, including his in-laws Elizabeth and Maged El-Nakla, the parents of his wife Nadia, had run out of fresh water on Sunday.
“I spoke to my mother-in-law this morning ... the situation is dire and desperate for them,” Yousaf said. “They’re out of clean water, they’ve got water from sea water, effectively, and the bombing continues.”
His in-laws travelled to Gaza from their home in Dundee before the Hamas attack on Israel to visit family.
The first minister said “above and beyond” his in-laws, the “overwhelming majority” of the population of Gaza were “suffering for a crime that, of course, they did not commit”.
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“I plead with those that are in charge and responsible to agree to a ceasefire,” he said.
“And that, of course, is all parties have to agree to a ceasefire to allow significant aid to come in and for the Rafah crossing to open to allow people to leave.”
The US government’s National Ocean Service says on its website that sea water can be “deadly” to humans.
Desalination plants, which can obtain freshwater by condensation from evaporating seawater or by filtration, have been introduced in some Middle Eastern countries.
Gaza does have desalination plants, but it is unknown if they are working due to the scarcity of electricity and fuel.
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Last week, the first minister wrote to all UK political leaders calling for them to back his calls for a ceasefire.
• It’s not moral cowardice to oppose a ceasefire in Gaza
He received a response from the Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, who backed his calls. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, and Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, have voiced their support for a ceasefire.
But in an interview with Sky News on Monday, Darren Jones MP, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said that, while the opinions of Sarwar and Khan matter to the Labour Party, “they are not part of the shadow cabinet and it’s the shadow cabinet that decides what Labour Party policy is in Westminster and that’s what’s happened”.
Yousaf said: “I would say its disappointing to see a member of Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet essentially dismissing Sadiq Khan, essentially dismissing Anas Sarwar’s opinion, saying that it’s the shadow cabinet that makes these decisions, not the more peripheral figures, which I think is unfortunate.
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“I do applaud the fact that Sadiq Khan and Anas Sarwar have gone against Keir Starmer’s position and called for that ceasefire.”
The first minister said he had not yet had a response from the Labour leader or Rishi Sunak, the prime minister.
