(Ottawa) A small group of Liberal and Conservative lawmakers are in Israel on a bipartisan trip to show solidarity with the country as it attempts to recover from a horrific Hamas attack and under close surveillance for civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says the trip plans to meet with survivors of the Oct. 7 attack, in which Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took some 240 hostage.
Meanwhile, Canadians whose loved ones are trapped in Gaza are still waiting to hear if new people with ties to Canada were able to enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing over the past weekend.
A daily list from the General Authority for Gaza Crossings and Borders, which includes the names of foreign nationals authorized to make the trip, included 135 people with ties to Canada on Sunday.
Global Affairs Canada had not yet indicated Monday whether these people had been able to leave the war-torn enclave, and no Canadian names appeared on the list.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, however, announced Sunday evening that 84 other Canadians were able to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing towards Egypt.
The latest update from Global Affairs, provided Friday, indicates that 376 Canadians, permanent residents and their relatives have so far been able to leave the Palestinian territory through the Rafah crossing. This number rises to 460 when adding the additional 84 Canadians who were able to leave Gaza.
After the October 7 attacks, Israel declared war on Hamas. The Jewish state began a campaign of airstrikes and cut off food, fuel, water and supplies to Gaza, where 2.3 million Palestinians live.
The territory’s health authorities say more than 12,700 people have been killed in the response so far, two-thirds of them women and children. Another 2,700 people are missing.
Heavy fighting broke out on Monday around the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, which has been hosting thousands of patients and displaced people for weeks.
The fighting comes a day after the World Health Organization evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the largest in the territory. These babies were among more than 250 seriously ill or injured patients who found themselves trapped there a few days after Israeli forces entered the hospital grounds.
Israel says Hamas uses civilians and hospitals as shields, while its critics say Israel’s continued siege and aerial bombardments constitute collective punishment against Palestinians.
With the Associated Press