Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anita Anand says the government has assisted some Canadians in leaving Gaza safetly, including children travelling with their mothers, according to a statement on X.
This as Israeli airstrikes and gunshots killed at least 25 people overnight into Saturday, according to Palestinian health officials and the local ambulance service, as ceasefire talks appear to have stalled and Gaza faces famine.
Gunfire killed the majority of people as they waited for aid trucks close to the Zikim crossing with Israel, said staff at Shifa hospital, where the bodies were taken.
Israel’s army didn’t respond to a request for comments about the shootings.
Anand says humanitarian aid sent by the government to Gaza has not made it through.
“Approximately $300 million in Canadian humanitarian aid has been unable to reach those in need in Gaza and this is simply unacceptable,” Anand said in the statement on X.
“Canada is deeply concerned for all civilian lives and will keep working with our partners to provide humanitarian aid and support.”
Those killed in strikes included four people in an apartment building in Gaza City, hospital staff and the ambulance service said.
Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas were at a standstill after the U.S. and Israel recalled negotiating teams on Thursday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday his government was considering “alternative options” to ceasefire talks. A Hamas official, however, said negotiations were expected to resume next week and described the recall of the Israeli and U.S. delegations as a pressure tactic.
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Egypt and Qatar, which mediate the talks alongside the United States, called the pause only temporary and said talks would resume. They did not say when.
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“Canada calls on all sides to negotiate an immediate ceasefire in good faith,” said Anand in the statement on X.
“We reiterate our calls for Hamas to immediately release all the hostages, and for the Israeli government to allow aid to flow and to respect the territorial integrity of the West Bank and Gaza.”
Children starving to death
The United Nations and experts say Palestinians in Gaza are at risk of famine, with reports of increasing numbers of people dying from causes related to malnutrition.
And now children with no preexisting conditions have begun to starve to death.
While Israel’s army says it’s allowing aid into the enclave with no limit on the number of trucks that can enter, the U.N. says it is hampered by Israeli military restrictions on its movements and incidents of criminal looting. The Hamas-run police had provided security for safe aid delivery, but it has been unable to operate after being targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
Israel on Saturday said over 250 trucks carrying aid from the U.N. and other organizations entered Gaza this week. About 600 trucks were entering per day during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March.
The latest Zikim crossing shootings come days after at least 80 Palestinians were killed trying to reach aid entering through the crossing. Israel’s military at the time said its soldiers shot at a gathering of thousands of Palestinians who posed a threat.
During the shootings late Friday, Sherif Abu Aisha said people started running when they saw a light that they thought was from the aid trucks, but as they got close, they realized it was from Israel’s tanks. That’s when the army started firing on people, he told The Associated Press. He said his uncle, a father of eight, was among those killed.
“We went because there is no food … and nothing was distributed,” he said.
Men carried the latest bodies through the rubble on Saturday. A small boy wailed over a corpse.
Israel faces growing international pressure to alleviate Gaza’s catastrophic humanitarian crisis. More than two dozen Western-aligned countries and over 100 charity and human rights groups have called for an end to the war, harshly criticizing Israel’s blockade and a new aid delivery model it has rolled out.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food, mostly near the new aid sites run by an American contractor, the U.N. human rights office says.
The charities and rights groups said even their own staff were struggling to get enough food.
Turning to airdrops, with a warning
For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by neighboring Jordan. A Jordanian official said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula.
Britain plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said Saturday. The office did not give details.
But the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned on social media that airdrops are “expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians” and won’t reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion.
-With files from Global News’ Ari Rabinovitch
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