National

No word on status of 135 Canadians cleared to leave Gaza Strip over weekend

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 20 Nov, 2023 10:55 AM

A small group of Liberal and Conservative MPs are in Israel as part of what they say is a bipartisan trip to show solidarity with the country as it grieves a gruesome attack by Hamas and comes under scrutiny for deaths in the Gaza Strip.

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather says the trip involves meeting with survivors of the Oct. 7 attack in which Hamas militants killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel and took roughly 240 people hostage.

Meanwhile, Canadians with loved ones trapped in Gaza are still waiting to learn whether anyone connected to Canada was able to make the journey into Egypt via the Rafah land crossing over the weekend.

A daily list from Gaza's General Authority for Crossings and Borders that includes the names of foreign nationals cleared to make the trip included 135 people with ties to Canada on Sunday.

Global Affairs Canada had not said by this morning whether they were able to leave the war-torn enclave, and no Canadian names were on the list today.

The department's last update, provided on Friday, said 376 Canadians, permanent residents and their relatives have been able to leave the Palestinian territory through the Rafah crossing.

After the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel declared war on Hamas, began an airstrike campaign and cut off food, fuel, water and supplies to Gaza, which is home to 2.3 million Palestinians.

The territory's health officials say more than 12,700 people have been killed in the retaliation campaign so far, two-thirds of them women and children. Another 2,700 people are reported missing.

Heavy fighting has broken out today around the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, which has housed thousands of patients and displaced people for weeks.

The fighting comes a day after the World Health Organization evacuated 31 premature babies from Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest, where they were among more than 250 critically ill or wounded patients stranded there days after Israeli forces entered the compound.

Israel says Hamas uses civilians and hospitals as shields, while critics say Israel's siege and relentless aerial bombardment amounts to collective punishment of Palestinians.

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

Avalanche kills two in B.C.'s backcountry

Search and rescue crews were notified when the victims were reported overdue and their bodies were later recovered from the scene of the avalanche. Avalanche Canada says the area of the slide was highly wind-affected, leaving some parts of the slope thin and rocky, while other sections had up to 130 centimetres of snow.

Avalanche kills two in B.C.'s backcountry

Pandemic support lowered B.C.'s child poverty rate

It's the largest one-year drop in the rate since 2000, but one in eight children were still living in poverty, and the report says rates were "dramatically higher" among children living on First Nation reserves and those who recently immigrated.

Pandemic support lowered B.C.'s child poverty rate

MPs want more earthquake donations matched

The federal government has offered to match up to $10 million in donations to the Canadian Red Cross for their partners on the ground to help people who are suddenly homeless. Conservative, Bloc Québécois and New Democrat MPs want to see that expanded to include other groups, an idea that is supported by at least one Liberal MP, Sameer Zuberi.

MPs want more earthquake donations matched

Canadian's body found in Turkey earthquake rubble

Saad Zora says his twin sister Samar was found earlier today by searchers as an excavator dug through pieces of a five-storey building in the city of Antakya. He said, "Samar was found," and added, "she didn't make it."

Canadian's body found in Turkey earthquake rubble

Across the continent, eyes on the sky — and Norad

Three separate objects were blown out of the sky in as many days over the weekend, a flurry of close encounters that followed what U.S. officials say was a Chinese surveillance balloon that floated across the continent two weeks ago.

Across the continent, eyes on the sky — and Norad

Big grocery store CEOs called to testify in Ottawa

The proposal to hear from the grocery leaders came from NDP MP Alistair MacGregor, and it received unanimous support from Liberal, Conservative and Bloc Québécois MPs. Executives from all three companies, as well as Save-On-Foods, have testified at past committee meetings focused on the rising cost of food — but not their CEOs.