A Canadian charity says it has suspended the distribution of some 38,000 boxes of food to the Gaza Strip, fearing the aid would never reach the Palestinians who need it due to controls imposed by a controversial, new U.S.-backed entity.
“Human Concern International has made a difficult but principled decision” to pause delivery of 17 “fully loaded” aid trucks, said the group’s chief programs officer Iftikhar Shaikh Ahmad at a news conference on Parliament Hill Thursday morning.
The aid group and others are pushing Ottawa to enact sanctions against Israel.
“Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were not abiding by humanitarian principles,” Ahmad told CBC News, referring to the company now charged with distributing aid in Gaza.
Speaking from the House of Commons West Block Thursday, Human Concern International’s Chief Programs Officer Iftikhar Shaikh Ahmad; Save the Children’s Humanitarian Director (via zoom from Gaza) Rachael Cummings; Humanitarian Advisor Roula Kikhia and Oxfam Canada’s Erin Kiley call upon the federal government to act, saying Canadian aid trucks are among those being blocked by the Israeli military from entering Gaza.
The GHF is establishing four initial hubs in southern Gaza to distribute food with the help of subcontractors.
“Only the population in the south would have access,” Ahmad said. “We were not given any guarantee that the people that would be going to the distribution centre are going to be safe.”
Established in February, the GHF took control of aid distribution in Israel from independent groups over the course of the last month, with approval from the Israeli government, marking the partial end of a months-long blockade.
Though the GHF has pledged over the next 30 days to build distribution centres across Gaza, including the north where most of the Palestinians displaced by war are located, it has yet to reveal locations.
Palestinians would have to cross through Israeli military lines to reach hubs around Rafah, the southern Gaza city bordering Egypt, to access aid.
On Monday, the head of the GHF resigned, stating the group did not adhere to humanitarian principles.
Crowds rushed a food distribution site in southern Gaza before scattering when shots were fired in what the UN called a ‘heartbreaking’ scene. Humanitarian groups say the new Israel-backed effort to get aid into Gaza falls far short of what’s needed.
The next day, The Associated Press reported that several Palestinians were injured as the Israeli military said it fired warning shots at people rushing one of the hubs.
“Our donors did not give to support forced displacement or selective aid,” Ahmad said. “They gave to help all Palestinians, wherever they are.”
Worker describes groups of starving children
On Thursday, the HCI was joined by Oxfam Canada, as well as Save the Children Canada, in asking the federal government to place sanctions against Israel. Ottawa has yet to act after threatening to do so in a joint statement with France and the United Kingdom on May 19.
Rachael Cummings, one of Save the Children’s representatives, joined the news conference remotely from Deir al-Balah, Gaza.
“What we see in Gaza is children walking, equipped in the streets with empty bowls looking for food. Children with empty bottles looking for clean water,” she said.
Cummings said when her group has asked kids what their biggest wishes are for their future, some simply answered they want food or water.
“One child shared that he wished to be dead, with his mother in paradise, where he knows he will be loved and he knows that there is food and water.”
The aid groups are not the first to take to Parliament Hill to call for sanctions.
On Wednesday, a group of physicians who have worked in Gaza held their own news conference to ask for increased arms restrictions on Israel.
“As a surgeon, I cannot treat a genocide. As doctors, we cannot stop a famine. So we demand that the Canadian government take meaningful action,” said Deirdre Nunan, an orthopedic surgeon.
CBC News has asked Global Affairs Canada questions about its red line for sanctions, but has yet to receive a response.
On Wednesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand declined to walk by journalists after a Liberal caucus meeting, going to an elevator instead of stopping to answer questions.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized the government for even issuing a statement.
“I really think it’s unfair that Mr. Carney is targeting the democratic Jewish state of Israel when in fact Hamas continues to hold hostages,” he said on Wednesday.
“It’s time for the Liberals to stop trying to score political points by attacking Israel and singling out Israel.”
Both the Bloc Québécois and NDP opposition parties are pushing for sanctions, with the latter hoping to present a new private members’ bill that would recognize a Palestinian state.
