(Ottawa) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday evaded a journalist’s question asking him whether Canada has contacts with Israel to ensure the security of the “Freedom Flotilla”, a humanitarian mission aimed at delivering aid to Gaza by sea in which four Canadians, including three Quebecers, took part.
Mr. Trudeau, who took part in a press conference in Bromont, in Estrie, instead affirmed that Ottawa is “pushing very hard on Israel” so that more humanitarian aid is delivered to the occupied territory which is , he admitted, “on the verge of starvation […] in an absolutely deplorable situation.
The hundreds of humanitarian workers from around the world taking part in this mission hope to break the Israeli blockade and deliver 5,500 tonnes of food and medical supplies to the population of Gaza.
In a letter that they sent on Tuesday in particular to Mr. Trudeau, to his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, and to the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, the members of the “Canadian-Quebec” delegation implore them to do the necessary to protect them.
PHOTO CHRISTINNE MUSCHI, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Justin Trudeau
Avoiding the question, Mr. Trudeau reiterated, as he has done for months, that Canada is pleading for a ceasefire, and that Hamas must lay down its arms and release the hostages.
“We need to create the conditions to have peace, stability and a two-state solution with a “secure” State of Israel and a “secure” Palestinian state for the future,” he continued.
On the diplomatic front, Egypt said it sent a delegation to Israel on Friday in the hope of negotiating a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Cairo also warned that a possible Israeli offensive focused on the town of Rafah in Gaza could have catastrophic consequences for regional stability.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, about two-thirds of them children and women.
Israel launched a military operation following a Hamas raid in early October in which Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 hostages.
With the Associated Press