Canadians in Gaza wait as hundreds more poised to leave through Egypt border crossing
CBC
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Israeli tanks and troops pressed toward Gaza City on Thursday but met fierce resistance from Hamas militants using mortars and hit-and-run attacks from tunnels as the Palestinian death toll from nearly four weeks of bombardments mounted.
At the southern end of the besieged enclave, foreign passport-holders were being allowed out through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
The war is closing in on the Gaza Strip's main population centre in the north, where the Islamist group is based and where Israel has been telling people to leave as it vows to annihilate Hamas once and for all.
"We are at the gates of Gaza City," Israeli military commander Brig.-Gen. Itzik Cohen said.
Israeli officers have stressed the difficulties of fighting in an urban environment. The strategy appears for now to concentrate large forces in the northern Gaza Strip rather than launch a ground assault on the entire territory.
The Israeli military said on Thursday another soldier had died in the Gaza fighting, bringing the number killed since ground operations were expanded on Friday to 17.
Troops had killed "dozens of terrorists," it added.
Pressing an offensive against Hamas militants, Israel has bombed Gaza by land, sea and air in its campaign to wipe out the Iran-backed Islamist group after its cross-border attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel said Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people, including several Canadians, and took more than 220 hostages.
After a total blockade of Gaza for more than three weeks, foreign passport-holders and some severely wounded people were being allowed out. Palestinian border official Wael Abu Mehsen said 400 foreign citizens would leave for Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Thursday, after at least 320 on Wednesday.
Another 60 critically injured Palestinians would also be allowed to leave, Mehsen added.
Canadians are not expected to be part of the list of individuals to leave Gaza today, a government source with direct knowledge of the situation told CBC News. The source asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
A Canadian who worked for an international organization did leave through Rafah on Wednesday, though they were not on the official list of some 450 Canadians in Gaza and West Bank who registered with the Canadian government. Global Affairs Canada (GAC) said earlier it wouldn't share more information concerning that person due to privacy considerations.
Officials in Ottawa are hopeful some Canadians can begin to leave on Friday, though GAC has previously said it cannot guarantee that every Canadian that wants to leave Gaza will be allowed to, nor could it guarantee the safety and security of those who choose to leave.
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.
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