(Ottawa) Everything is in place so that the 440 Canadians stuck in the Gaza Strip can cross the border to Egypt in the coming days, says Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly.
This is not the first time since the start of the war that Canada has hinted at the possibility that the Rafah border crossing will open to allow its citizens, permanent residents and their loved ones to pass.
Is this time the right one?
“In the coming days, I have confidence that Canadians will come out,” replied the minister in an interview with journalists from The PressTHURSDAY.
PHOTO RYAN REMIORZ, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Melanie Joly
Everybody is ready. We are just waiting for authorization from the Israeli side.
Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs
However, she refuses to set a timetable, at a time when more and more foreign citizens are managing to flee the enclave – on Thursday, it was the turn of 74 dual American nationals to set foot on Egyptian soil.
The agreement concluded with Israel and Egypt should allow the evacuation of some 7,000 foreign nationals, at a rate of approximately 1,000 per day, explains the head of Canadian diplomacy.
The approximately 440 Canadians who have requested government assistance will be met on the other side of the Rafah post by diplomatic staff from the Ottawa embassy in Cairo.
Once they arrive in the Egyptian capital, they will not have permission to stay in Egypt: they will have to return to Canada on commercial flights, specifies the minister.
She does not go so far as to describe the context as a humanitarian truce, preferring to speak of “detente”.
Furthermore, once foreign nationals have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip, a way will have to be found to free the approximately 200 people held hostage by Hamas.
Qatar is responsible for this negotiation.
Canada, for now, continues to resist calls for a ceasefire.
At least 50 MPs from all parties in the House of Commons, including the entire New Democratic Party caucus, are urging the Trudeau government to demand a cessation of hostilities.
“A ceasefire happens when two parties, normally states, negotiate and reach an agreement. The difficulty we currently have is that we have a State and a terrorist organization,” argues Mélanie Joly.
And Israel, where the fire is coming from at the moment, must act in accordance with international law, she said, also referring to the principle of proportionality.
“The way Israel conducts the war must be consistent with this international law. And it is important that his response is not the suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” she insists.