‘They keep shouting, they feel scared’: B.C. man fears for his children in Gaza

A B.C. man is terrified about the fate of his two children who are currently trapped in Gaza, along with his mother, father, brother and sister.

Mohammad Fayad emigrated to Canada in 2022, hoping his 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son could join him soon.

He said he has not heard from his children in about 48 hours, but he keeps trying. He doesn’t know if they even have electricity or battery power for their phones.

Canadian Armed Forces flights have evacuated nearly 430 people from Israel, and two additional flights are scheduled for Saturday, according to Julie Sunday, the assistant deputy minister for consular, security and emergency management at Global Affairs Canada (GAC).

Sunday said that there currently are over 6,500 Canadians in Israel registered with Global Affairs and 485 Canadians are registered in the West Bank and Gaza.

Fayad said he hopes his children can be on one of those flights soon.

But the last time he talked to them, they didn’t know what to do.

“They just keep shouting and they feel scared that something (will happen) to them,” he said. “They (are) always asking Canada to help them. They say, ‘Dad can you do something for us?’ but the problem (is) that I’m not able to do anything for them. I have no power.”

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Fayad said his children live in the middle area of Gaza and that even before Hamas’ attack on Israel, their situation was not good. They had no access to school or any formal education.

He added that the last he heard was that people had started moving from the north of Gaza to the south.

“I just want people to be safe,” Fayad said. “People must be safe and must be out of this kind of conflict, especially the civilians who are stuck there.”

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He said he has contacted Global Affairs and they said maybe he could get his children to Tel Aviv to take a flight, but he said there is no way his children can get there.

“I wish I can (see) them,” Fayad said. “And the important thing now (is that) I pray that they are still safe and still alive so I can meet them in the future.”

About 1,300 Canadians in Israel are currently seeking assistance from Global Affairs Canada, with a further 150 in Gaza and 190 in the West Bank. There are still 600 Canadians whose location is not clear and GAC is reaching out, Sunday said, and the agency continues to follow up on the cases of four missing Canadians.

— with files from David Baxter and Eric Stober