(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured Wednesday that his government was “actively working” to find a Palestinian Canadian missing in the Gaza Strip.
Mansour Shouman was in the region to document ongoing humanitarian efforts amid the war that has raged between Israel and Hamas since October 7.
A member of the team who supported him in this work says his loved ones lost contact with him more than a week ago.
Global Affairs Canada confirmed this weekend that it was aware of the disappearance of a Canadian in Gaza.
The ministry said it was working to monitor the situation and was in direct contact with family members.
No further details were released, for confidentiality reasons.
“We are actively working on this,” Mr. Trudeau said Wednesday. We talk to everyone. We take this very seriously. »
Zaheera Soomar, who worked with Mr. Shouman, said he learned early last week that he had been seen in a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, but was heading to Rafah.
Rafah is the crossing point with Egypt through which Canadians were able to leave the besieged territory.
Mr. Soomar said three eyewitnesses later told the team that Mr. Shouman was taken away last Tuesday by the Israel Defense Forces as he was heading toward Rafah.
These eyewitness accounts could not be independently verified.
Mansour Shouman previously worked as a consultant in the oil and gas sector in Calgary. He is the father of five children who left Gaza with his wife last year for Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, where his mother resides.
But Mr. Shouman stayed in Gaza because he felt a duty to document the war and its ramifications.
Gaza is constantly bombarded by Israel, in response to Hamas, which controls the territory. Hamas brutally attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 people hostage.
The Hamas-run Gaza Strip’s health ministry says more than 26,000 people have been killed, including militants, by Israel’s massive military response.