Canadian officials turn up volume on calls for humanitarian access to Gaza
CBC
Canadian officials are making increasingly urgent calls for Israel to allow humanitarian access to the Gaza strip — or end the fighting altogether.
In a statement on Saturday evening, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau focused on the deteriorating situation in Gaza, calling a humanitarian corridor into the region "essential to address the urgent needs of civilians." Trudeau also said international law and the rights of workers like medics and journalists must be respected.
"Canadians and people around the world must be steadfast in our support for the protection of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian," Trudeau said.
Israel once again urged civilians in northern Gaza to evacuate to southern parts of the small territory in Sunday, in anticipation of a possible ground military operation. Israel says it is committed to destroying Hamas but does not want to harm civilians.
In an interview on Rosemary Barton Live, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly urged countries in the region to agree on a deal to allow the establishment of a humanitarian corridor.
"There absolutely needs to be food, water and fuel going in to Gaza, because this is one of the worst places to be in the world right now," she told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton in an interview airing Sunday.
Both Trudeau and Joly reaffirmed the government's position that Israel had a right to defend itself within the bounds of international law.
Several Liberal MPs have also made statements in support of a humanitarian corridor and restrictions on Israel's military operations and blockade of the Gaza Strip. Israel has ordered a "complete siege" of the territory, blocking shipments of essential goods like food and water.
Liberal MPs Iqra Khalid, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Yasir Naqvi all published statements calling for an end to violence and aid to civilians.
Meanwhile, at the federal NDP convention in Hamilton, Ont., delegates endorsed a motion calling for a ceasefire and the restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Another urgent priority for Canadian officials is the safety of Canadian citizens in Gaza. In a briefing for reporters on Sunday, Global Affairs Canada said that if there is a deal to allow Canadians and other international citizens out of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza strip, the window would be short.
"It's not just a matter of opening the gates of a border, there's a lot of circumstances and conditions that have to be lined up in order for that passage to be relatively safe," said Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister with GAC.
"In order for all things to line up, Egyptian border authorities [and] Israeli border authorities need to have a plan, and agree on that," he said.
Lévêque said he did not know the details of where was the holdup in negotiations between the various parties.
Both sides of the miserable war in Gaza are dragging their feet on moving on to the next crucial phase of the ceasefire, leaving Palestinians in the territory to deal with the muck and sometimes deadly cold of winter with few reasons to hope that meaningful progress will come soon.
A mule grazed on a recent Thursday afternoon at the end of a quiet dirt road near the entrance of a gated and walled ranch house on the outskirts of Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state in northwestern Mexico.
The U.S. on Saturday seized an oil tanker that was last docked in Venezuela, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on social media platform X.
If it were the premise of a Hollywood movie, it would be hard to believe.
Long before you could see the crowd, you could hear them. The whistles and shouting carried blocks from the residential street in Minneapolis, where more than 70 people lined the sidewalk recording on their phones and hurling insults — and the occasional snowball — at a handful of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their vehicles.
A man who is suspected of killing two and wounding several others at Brown University has been found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said.
Canada is yet again on the precipice of economic uncertainty as a result of U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade war. This time it's connected to an upcoming decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday promised a crackdown on hate speech in the wake of the attack on a Jewish holiday event at Sydney's Bondi Beach, which left 15 dead.
For nearly four years, the city of Kramatorsk in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk has been a stronghold — a key logistics hub for the military, and for the population, a literal and symbolic fortress standing firm against a Russian push that continues to edge closer from the south and the east.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is ordering a blockade of all "sanctioned oil tankers" into Venezuela, ramping up pressure on the country's authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro in a move that seemed designed to put a tighter chokehold on the South American country's economy.
This story is no longer being updated. Please visit this page for live updates and reaction.
U.S. President Donald Trump sued the BBC on Monday for defamation over edited clips of a speech that made it appear he directed supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol, opening an international front in his fight against media coverage he deems untrue or unfair.
At least 11 people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a shooting by two gunmen at a Jewish holiday event at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday.