The first group of Canadians has been evacuated out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen said today.
“They are now safe and sound in Egypt and we’re very, very happy,” Hussen told reporters.
Canadians are among the hundreds who have been waiting to leave Gaza. An approved evacuation list from the General Authority for Border Crossings in Gaza listed about 80 people connected to Canada who have been granted permission to leave through the Rafah border crossing, according to the Canadian Press.
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Israel gave civilians still trapped inside freshly encircled Gaza City a four-hour window to leave on Tuesday, and residents escaping said they passed tanks in position to possibly begin storming it.
Israel says its forces have surrounded Gaza City, home to a third of the enclave’s 2.3 million people, and are poised to storm it soon in their campaign to annihilate the Hamas Islamists who attacked Israeli towns exactly a month ago.
Israel has bombarded the enclave since the Hamas raid on southern Israel Oct. 7, when its fighters killed 1,400 people, including several Canadians, and seized 240 hostages.
Featured VideoPeople gathered in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Tuesday to honour the people killed one month ago in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — and to call for the release of the hostages still being held.
Gaza health officials say the Israeli assault since then has killed 10,328 Palestinians, including some 4,237 children.
“It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair,” UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk said in a statement at the start of a trip to the region, during which he will visit the Rafah crossing from Egypt, the sole route for aid.
Israel gave residents a window until 2 p.m. local time to leave Gaza City on Tuesday. Residents say Israeli tanks have been moving mostly at night, with Israeli forces largely relying on air and artillery strikes to clear a path for their ground advance.
“For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza,” the military announced, referring to the wetlands that bisect the strip.
“The most dangerous trip in my life. We saw the tanks from point blank. We saw decomposed body parts. We saw death,” resident Adam Fayez Zeyara posted with a selfie of himself on the road out of Gaza City.
‘Graveyard for children’
Calling for an urgent ceasefire, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that Gaza is becoming a “graveyard for children.”
“Ground operations by the Israel Defence Forces and continued bombardment are hitting civilians, hospitals, refugee camps, mosques, churches and UN facilities — including shelters. No one is safe,” Guterres told reporters.
International organizations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded, and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.
‘We are civilians’
While Israel’s military operation is focused on the northern half of Gaza, the south has also come under attack. Palestinian health officials said at least 23 people were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes early on Tuesday in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.
“We are civilians,” said Ahmed Ayesh, who was rescued from the rubble of a house in Khan Younis where health officials said 11 people had been killed. “This is the bravery of the so-called Israel, they show their might and power against civilians, babies inside, kids inside, and elderly.”
Featured VideoIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, also said no to a general ceasefire in Gaza, but added that ‘tactical, little pauses’ remain a possibility.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider “tactical little pauses” in fighting in the Gaza Strip to let hostages leave or aid get through, but again rejected calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure.
Netanyahu made the comments Monday to ABC News, where he was also asked what he envisioned Gaza might look like were Hamas to be rooted out of the territory.
“I think Israel will, for an indefinite period, will have the overall security responsibility because we’ve seen what happens when we don’t have it, when we don’t have that security responsibility.”
Israel’s military said it had captured a militant compound in the northern Gaza Strip and was set to attack fighters hiding in a warren of underground tunnels. It released footage showing troops using bulldozers to dig up earth and knock over walls.
Israeli aircraft struck several Hamas militants who had barricaded themselves in a building near the al-Quds Hospital inside Gaza City, the military said.
Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed mounting calls for a halt in fighting. Israel says hostages should be released first. Hamas says it will not free them nor stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.
Featured VideoOne month since the Hamas attacks, the number of Palestinians killed surpasses 10,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, as Israel says its army will enter Gaza City within days.
Anger at missile strike that killed Lebanese civilians
Lebanese Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally, has regularly clashed with Israeli forces at the Lebanon-Israel border the past month as fears mount that violence could spiral into a much wider conflict.
Israeli strikes have killed some 60 Hezbollah fighters and at least 10 civilians, Lebanese security officials say.
Front Burner20:15What is Hezbollah?
Lebanese authorities say Israel carried out a missile strike on Sunday that killed three sisters — aged 10 to 14 — and their grandmother in a vehicle. Beirut will submit a complaint to the United Nations over the killing of civilians.
“Are these the schoolbooks and bags of terrorists?” said uncle Samir Ayyoub, who witnessed the strike while he drove in convoy with them in his own car.
Israel’s military said its troops engaged a vehicle in Lebanon on Sunday which was “identified as a suspected transport for terrorists,” and it was looking into reports there were civilians inside.