THE STANDING SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Thursday, November 23, 2023
The Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade met with videoconference this day at 11:30 a.m. [ET] to carry out a study on foreign relations and international trade generally.
Senator Peter M. Boehm (Chair) in the chair.
[Translation]
The Chair: Honourable senators, I am a senator from Ontario and the chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
[English]
I invite committee members participating in today’s meeting to introduce themselves.
Senator Ravalia: Welcome. I am Senator Mohamed Ravalia from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Senator Coyle: I am Mary Coyle, from Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Senator M. Deacon: Marty Deacon from Ontario.
Senator Harder: Peter Harder, Ontario.
Senator Boniface: Gwen Boniface, Ontario.
[Translation]
The Chair: Welcome to you all, colleagues, and to all Canadians who are watching us now. Senator Gerba, would you like to introduce yourself?
Senator Gerba: Amina Gerba from Quebec.
The Chair: Thank you.
[English]
I wish to welcome everyone, as well as those who are watching us on Senate ParlVU across our country.
Colleagues, we are meeting today under our general order of reference to continue our discussion of the humanitarian situation in Gaza. To discuss the matter, we are pleased to welcome for our first panel, from Doctors Without Borders — sometimes it’s better known as Médecins Sans Frontières — Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director; and Jason Nickerson, Humanitarian Representative to Canada; and via videoconference, from UNICEF, Lana Wreikat, Director ad interim of Emergency Operations.
I would like to thank you all for being with us.
Before we hear your remarks and proceed to questions and answers, I ask members and witnesses in the room to please refrain from leaning in too closely to your microphone, or removing your earpiece when you’re doing that. This will avoid any sound feedback that could negatively impact the committee staff, particularly interpreters who wear earphones as a matter of course.
I would like to also acknowledge that Senator Stephen Greene of Nova Scotia has just joined us.
[Translation]
We are now ready for your opening remarks. This will be followed by questions from the senators. Mr. Belliveau, you have the floor.
[English]
Joseph Belliveau, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders: Good morning, senators. Thank you for having us and for giving us this opportunity to share with you today.
The day before yesterday, two of my Doctors Without Borders colleagues were brutally killed in an attack on Al Awda Hospital in northern Gaza. They were doctors caring for wounded patients in one of Gaza’s last remaining barely functional hospitals.
Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila had recently taken three children under his personal care who had lost their parents to the relentless, indiscriminate killings. There are so many of these children — scared, many severely injured or burned, and alone — that medics refer to them with the shorthand acronym “WCNSF,” meaning wounded child, no surviving family.
Attacks on hospitals are attacks on humanity. There is no justification — legal or moral — for the relentless, violent strikes on civilians and hospitals, nor is there justification for the complete siege of Gaza that denies civilians the necessities of survival: food, water, medical supplies, fuel to run incubators and dialysis machines. These are forms of collective punishment and they are crimes explicitly prohibited under International Humanitarian Law, or IHL.
Health care facilities and personnel are explicitly protected under IHL. Yet, the World Health Organization, also known as WHO, has recorded 310 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7.
Organized health services have ground to a near halt across northern Gaza as buildings are destroyed, medics killed and essential consumables severed: water, oxygen, gauze, IV fluids, painkillers. Imagine your local hospital trying to function without such basics, while under bombardment.
Communications cut and the inability to move safely have also crippled MSF’s ability to coordinate activities. My medical colleagues are essentially acting on their own. MSF’s organizational support is reduced to the solidarity of being on the other end of a rare phone call or text message.
This brutal annihilation of an entire population’s health system stretches beyond what humanitarian aid can fix. Doctors cannot stop bombs.
The pattern of IHL violations is so repetitive and the disregard for human life so evident that MSF has taken the unusual stance of calling for a ceasefire. Canada should do the same.
Now is not the time to equivocate.
Pauses may be a hopeful start, but we need a sustained ceasefire. We are already witnessing a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions, and it will get worse if this violent onslaught resumes. A sustained ceasefire would allow MSF and others to re-establish spaces for humanity amid the destruction.
MSF has worked in Palestine since 1989. In Gaza, 367 medics and support staff were providing medical care within a fragile health system that, prior to the current conflict, already lacked personnel and supplies.
Those colleagues, the remaining ones, are now in survival mode. They need a reprieve. We have teams and truckloads of medical supplies at the ready. On November 14, a small team of trauma specialists managed to cross into southern Gaza. They are now working out of Nasser Hospital.
On November 18, a bomb blast less than one kilometre from that facility resulted in 122 casualties in the emergency room within minutes. Across Gaza, blasts have left tens of thousands suffering from shrapnel wounds, burns, fractures, internal injuries and amputations. Those are just the direct results of bombs and bullets. Fifty thousand pregnant women are also at risk, as are premature babies, cancer patients, diabetics and so many others.
The mental trauma of this scale of violence is difficult to even contemplate. We cannot mount a meaningful humanitarian response while civilians, including medics and humanitarians, are under fire.
We, at MSF, like so many Canadians, were aggrieved and outraged by Hamas’ deliberate and unconscionable attack on Israeli civilians on October 7. We are now horrified by Israel’s response.
My colleagues have witnessed and experienced overwhelming death and destruction amounting to brazen and repeated violations of IHL’s cornerstone principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution. IHL remains the clearest expression of our global agreement to maintain a space for humanity in war. That space is being crushed, but we must keep defending it.
We are asking Canada for nothing less than to defend humanity. We are asking Canada to put its weight wholeheartedly and unequivocally behind a sustained ceasefire.
Prior to his death on Tuesday, my colleague, Dr. Mahmoud, wrote the following ominous words on the hospital whiteboard, which had been used for surgical scheduling: “We did what we could. Remember us.” Rather than remember more needlessly killed civilians, including doctors and children, let us do all we can to end this brutality.
Thank you for this opportunity. I look forward to your questions and comments.
The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Belliveau.
We will now go to a statement from Lana Wreikat, the Director ad interim of Emergency Operations of UNICEF.
You have the floor, Ms. Wreikat.
Lana Wreikat, Director ad interim of Emergency Operations, UNICEF: Thank you. Good morning, senators. Thank you for calling on UNICEF to speak about the bleak situation for children in Gaza.
UNICEF has been working in the State of Palestine for the past four decades, working to uphold the rights of all children to access essential public services and protection.
Our objective is to ensure that every child, irrespective of background or circumstances, has an equal chance to fulfil their potential, even in times of conflict.
Before briefing you in more detail on the situation in Gaza, I would like to draw your attention to the plight of children in Israel and the West Bank.
Since October 7, 35 Israeli children have reportedly been killed, while more than 30 are being held hostage in Gaza. Like the Secretary-General of the United Nations has said, the agreement to release hostages is welcomed, but much more needs to be done. UNICEF will continue to call on parties to safely release all abducted children.
In the West Bank, we remain highly concerned about the deteriorating security and humanitarian conditions. Over the past six weeks, 56 Palestinian children have been killed, while scores have been displaced from their homes.
We estimate that almost 450,000 children in the West Bank need urgent humanitarian assistance.
In Gaza, as the bloodshed in reaches new levels of horror every day, the world continues to watch in shock as schools and hospitals come under fire, premature babies die and an entire population is being deprived of basic services and the means of survival. In addition, there are water and fuel shortages; attacks on schools and hospitals; food insecurity; massive displacement, including with unaccompanied children; and a massive array of explosive remnants of war and potentially land mines, which will be an unacceptable lethal threat for children for decades to come.
We know that Canada understands the critical importance of the Children and Armed Conflict agenda. You have been fundamental in building and financing this agenda since its outset, and you are fully aware of the impact it has to prevent and end grave violations against children.
Since the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1612 in 2005, the United Nations has been monitoring and reporting on grave violations against Israeli and Palestinian children. To draw a comparison of the scale of grave violations taking place in the present crisis, a total of 1,653 children were verified as killed in 17 years of monitoring and reporting of grave violations between 2005 and 2022, but more than 5,300 Palestinian children have been reportedly killed in just 46 days. That is over 115 a day, every day, for weeks and weeks.
Based on these figures, children account for 40% of the deaths in Gaza.
In other words, today, the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Furthermore, we are also receiving reports that more than 1,200 children remain buried under the rubble of bombed-out buildings or are otherwise unaccounted for.
There is no question that the parties to the conflict are blatantly committing grave violations against children, including killing, maiming, abductions, attacks on schools and hospitals and the denial of humanitarian access.
UNICEF and our partners, present in Gaza for decades, are committed to respond to this crisis, guided by the principles of humanity, impartiality, neutrality and independence. We have the expertise, know-how and most certainly, the will.
We welcome the limited ceasefire agreement, and we are positioned to quickly scale up the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid in Gaza in health, nutrition, water and sanitation hygiene promotion, and other important areas, including child protection. We are doing everything we can to help children get through this ordeal, shoulder to shoulder with our partners like UNRWA, WHO, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and other NGOs. We are providing urgent medical supplies and vaccines. We’re keeping primary health care centres and hospitals operational. We’re responding with our partners to ensure that millions have access to safe drinking water and sanitation facilities, and we’re providing emergency cash transfers to households every quarter, benefitting around 200,000 people.
We and our partners are also providing mental health and protection support. We are calling upon Canada to continue to be vocal about the protection of children, and more specifically, to influence the parties to conflict to immediately stop committing grave violations against children. Increase your commitments to support the response in Gaza. Our resources are dangerously low, with 85% of needs currently unfunded.
We also call upon Canada to please do everything in your power to influence the parties to put an end to this war. Every minute counts.
Ultimately, children in the State of Palestine and Israel need a comprehensive and lasting peace agreement. Parties to the conflict must work to reach a negotiated political solution, prioritizing and upholding the rights of children.
Thank you, and I’m on standby to answer any questions.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Ms. Wreikat. Thank you for joining us from New York today.
[Translation]
Colleagues, I’d like to point out that you have a maximum of four minutes each for the first round of questions, including questions and answers.
[English]
Therefore, members of the committee and witnesses, please be as concise as you can. That will ensure a greater exchange of information and views. If we have time, we will go to a second round of questions as well.
Before proceeding to questions, it’s important to remember that this is a very sensitive topic that we are discussing today, so I would expect that questions and answers be given full respect to individuals. There should be a respectful tone. I want everyone to exercise caution in their statements, and remember that we are discussing the humanitarian situation on the ground in Gaza, which is very serious.
We’ll begin the questioning with the deputy chair of the committee.
Senator Harder: Thank you very much to our witnesses. Thank you for the work your respective organizations are doing. It’s overwhelming and admirable that you are continuing to provide the level of service that you are.
I want to explore the comments you made with respect to international humanitarian law. You spoke about a number of violations of that law. Can both of your organizations tell us whether you are working with other organizations to document, in a more precise and legally significant fashion, the violations of human rights and humanitarian law that you are observing?
Mr. Belliveau: At this point, it has really been so chaotic that it has been difficult to have regular contact with my colleagues. We’re really just trying to document the best we can, as we go. We’re also trying to make sure there is some degree of a public record of what is occurring as we go.
Our witnessing is always rooted in what our teams experience and what they witness directly. This is what we’re trying to share as best we can.
I know that the World Health Organization and hopefully others are really trying to track and document as best they can, but that’s how we have been approaching it.
Senator Harder: And UNICEF? Could you answer on behalf of your organization, as well, and perhaps others within the UN family?
Ms. Wreikat: Thanks. I definitely can answer on behalf of UNICEF.
We do monitor and report on grave violations against children — Israel, Palestine and one of the countries we do the monitoring of. As mentioned, there are humanitarian access issues and security, so it’s really very difficult. It takes time to get verified data. You will have to wait until the dust settles a bit to be able to have the monitoring and verification. But it’s definitely an important part of our job.
We also monitor attacks on schools, water facilities and key social service infrastructure. Of course, other UN agencies have a role in the monitoring as well. Thank you.
Senator Harder: Thank you.
I just wanted to raise this, because I think having a record and an ability in a post-conflict situation to follow up is very important for the integrity of international humanitarian law. So thank you.
Senator Coyle: Thank you very much to our guests. It is good to see you again, Dr. Nickerson. Thank you for your work. I’m very sorry for the loss of your colleagues and those children.
This is a very serious situation that everybody here has described for us. The inhumanity that both witnesses have described is not just heartbreaking but infuriating — the disregard, as you said, for human life. All human life is precious, particularly these innocent people who have nothing to do with this conflict, with causing the conflict or any party in the conflict.
I believe I heard you say, Mr. Belliveau, you have taken the unusual stance — did you say that — of calling for a ceasefire and asking Canada to do the same. I believe you also said that a pause is not sufficient. Could you tell us about, first of all, why you think a ceasefire is absolutely essential and a pause is insufficient, what the difference you see being between those two? I know there is no actual official language around those, so what do you mean by that? Why do you feel that the occasional however-many-day pause is not sufficient to do what you need to do?
Mr. Belliveau: Thanks so much for your comments and also for that question.
First off, to say the unusualness stems from the fact that MSF generally accepts the fact of war, and then we go into those spaces and try to defend the space for humanity and specifically medical action within war. So we’re normally asking parties to conflict to respect international humanitarian law and provide that space and give us the access that we need.
In this case, that space has been so crushed, so destroyed, that we just are not able to effectively act and respond anymore within this context. That’s why we’re taking the unusual step of calling for the ceasefire.
You have asked about the distinction, why a sustained ceasefire versus a kind of short-term pause? Should this four-day pause that they have ostensibly agreed to actually come to pass, there is a very limited amount of what we think we would be able to do within that period of time. We certainly hope that we will be able to evacuate people. We have been trying now for almost two weeks to evacuate both staff and critically injured and ill patients out of hospitals and just have not been able to do that. A few days ago, we almost were able to do that and then we were not. In fact, the convoy was fired upon when we had to go back to our base. So we would hope that we can get some evacuations.
We would also hope that within that period of time, we could bring in some basic essentials, basic medical supplies, some water, perhaps some food, but what we could not hope to do is actually start to mount a proper humanitarian response, to actually restart medical attention the way they are needed. For that we need a sustained — because if we just expect over the next few days a resumption of hostilities, especially in the manner they have been conducted thus far, we could not, in good conscience, put more people into that context and actually restart medical activities.
The Chair: Thank you very much Mr. Belliveau.
Senator Ravalia: Thank you very much to all of you for the incredible work that you do.
Given the reality that the chances of a sustained ceasefire, other than these temporary pauses that we expect as hostages are changed, is highly unlikely, how much longer do you think that your organization can continue to work in those present conditions? What are the risks of more catastrophic outcomes in terms of waterborne disease, cholera, malnutrition, deaths from lack of medication, et cetera?
Mr. Belliveau: Mr. Nickerson, do you want to speak to that last part?
Jason Nickerson, Humanitarian Representative to Canada, Doctors Without Borders: We’re already in a situation of medical supplies being depleted. Our teams have had a shortage are or a complete absence of things like morphine, pain medicines and so on. There are clear reports from our teams and others of performing surgical procedures without anaesthetic because they simply don’t exist. We are at the point of a health system that has seen an increase in needs and a massive decrease in the volume of supplies.
So the answer of how long can we continue to operate under these conditions is we’re already not able to operate under the current conditions. What we need is sustained access, sustained resumption of large volumes of medical supplies coming into Gaza.
To respond to acute medical needs, so traumas, burns and so on, we are seeing hundreds of patients every day but also to meet people’s day-to-day needs. That’s simply not happening at the level that it needs to.
On the question of risk, of waterborne diseases and so on, I mean any time you have people who are being forcibly displaced and you have large groups of people in a small area, which is effectively what has happened in the South, this from a public health perspective increases the risk of all of these things happening. It increases the risk of waterborne diseases, of the spread of other infectious diseases and so on. That risk exists and is credible.
From a water perspective, we have heard of people drinking brackish water, drinking salty water, because they did not have any other options. That comes with its own host of health concerns and so on. From a public health perspective and from a health system’s perspective, this is an untenable situation.
Senator Ravalia: With so much information, misinformation, disinformation, it’s sometimes hard to figure out. We hear repeated suggestions or proof that Hamas may be actually operating out of your hospitals or certain hospitals. For those of you working on the ground, is there evidence of this or are we getting the right information? How much further can we explore this issue?
Mr. Belliveau: I mentioned 367 colleagues who have been working in Gaza, supporting three different hospitals before this, running a separate clinic as well, and we haven’t witnessed this. We’re not able to say where Hamas might have bases and where they don’t and how far away they might be from medical facilities.
What we are able to say with absolute certainty is that the medical facilities we have been supporting and working with, have been running as full, comprehensive medical facilities with hundreds of beds. In this last period of time over the last six weeks with thousands of patients literally just lining the hallway, injured people, children, women, the people who already in cancer wards and on dialysis, so these were fully functional medical facilities that have now been destroyed and are no longer functioning.
Regardless of how far or close Hamas might have been — and again, we have not witnessed that at all — that would certainly not absolve the IDF and the other party to this conflict from their obligations under international humanitarian law to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants and explicitly to protect medical spaces.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Mr. Belliveau.
Senator Boniface: Thank you all for being here. I’ll start with a question for UNICEF. With the pause coming, we heard yesterday from some of our witnesses about the readiness to get supplies in. Is UNICEF in a position where you have supplies ready to go if the pause is taken? What would be the difference if there were more than one entry point open to allow that to take place?
Ms. Wreikat: Thank you for your question. From the UNICEF side, we do have supplies. We have a pipeline in place in a large region in Egypt to enter from Rafah. We’re looking at water. We’re looking at medical and health kits as well. And we’re also looking at other critical supplies for displaced people. Mainly we’re looking at lifesaving supplies.
The pipeline, unfortunately there will only be 200 trucks a day, so we will also be contributing with other UN to these lifesaving supplies that go in, but the needs are massive. From our side, I can give one example on water. Unless we really make sure that the nation plans and the water infrastructure is operational, it’s not possible to continue trucking water. With trucking, we can perhaps secure water for 400,000, 500,000 people for a few days, but you need to make sure they have running water through these plants. That requires fuel, chemicals and spare parts. We’re also looking at how to get the critical chemical spare parts, as well as the fuel to be able to run the water through the infrastructure.
From our end, the operation is not only about the provision of supplies. We have 30 staff on the ground. These are Palestinian staff, but we also have international staff who went in to coordinate the response from our end. We coordinate the water sanitation and hygiene promotion activities under the wash cluster, as well as nutrition. Child protection is critical as well. The pause will give us an opportunity to reunite unaccompanied children with their families.
We’re also working and trying to evacuate children who are wounded or who need medical treatment. You must have seen on the news with the WHO. We’ve managed to evacuate the premature babies from Al-Shifa Hospital in the north. Definitely we need access from other crossing point, from the West Bank. We are really pushing and advocating for access through the sea and air. Road transport alone is not sufficient. There are 2 million people and we need to also continue supporting the population in the north.
Senator Boniface: Thank you.
Senator M. Deacon: Thank all of you for being here. This is a gut-wrenching topic, but we’re appreciative of the roles that each of your organizations are playing, and you can bring some of it into this hearing today.
My question for UNICEF, initially, is a follow-on from the session we had yesterday. A few days ago, the UN Security Council said Gaza is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
I touched on this yesterday. I know that we’re focusing on suffering right now. But presuming this round of fighting will end, hopefully end sooner than later, those children who live through it but will be orphaned with no state apparatus to look after them, what is the risk for them, and how can Canada assist them in ensuring they can grow and live with a preference of not removing them from their home?
I’m going to question you from UNICEF first. Thank you.
Ms. Wreikat: Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, the future looks very bleak. Without having a ceasefire, we’re really not able to provide the required medical treatment for children inside Gaza at this point in time.
There was a question about water, and we have over 700,000 children who have been displaced from their homes now inside Gaza. Many of them might have been separated from their families, and they’re sheltering in overcrowded places. They lack protection, safe water, food, basic hygiene and sanitation, so even the possibility for them to become severely malnourished is high, so their vulnerability is also increasing. Their survival is not something certain.
We’re also already receiving increased reports of diarrhea, chickenpox, respiratory infection and other diseases among these children. The health care system has nearly collapsed, so even for them to make it alive after this crisis — and yesterday, the ERC mentioned that we really stopped counting how many were killed. We have thousands and also still many buried under the rubble.
Of course, if there’s a ceasefire, if there’s peace, that’s basically where we have our strength, UNICEF works in linking humanitarian development and peace. It’s a nexus approach where we will also be part of the international community working on rehabilitation, reconstruction, also providing mental health and psychosocial support for these children, reuniting them with their families and also for the majority, education.
Whenever it’s possible, we’re really trying now to set up some recreational or even psychosocial activities where possible in the south. But for us education is key.
And Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of UNWRA, said children are deprived of education. Education was the only passport for these children from Gaza to have a better life. Even if education is not there, if this continues, it means we’ll have a lost generation. There is a risk that they may be trafficked; they may also be recruited into armed conflict, it is also a big risk.
We continue to monitor the violations against children to be able to verify and to assist these groups, but definitely under these conditions, it’s really very difficult for us because of access and insecurity.
Senator M. Deacon: Thank you.
The Chair: Thank you very much. We’re slightly over time, but I’m assuming a second round.
[Translation]
Senator Gerba: I welcome our witnesses. We applaud what your organizations are doing on the ground in this crisis in Gaza. From an international perspective, we need these organizations more than ever to take action on the ground. Yet since the crisis began, many members of your organizations have been killed.
Mr. Belliveau, you mentioned your colleagues who lost their lives. We are very sorry, truly sorry. No humanitarian worker should lose their life in the line of duty. What should be done to ensure that your organizations and the members of your organizations are better protected on the ground, knowing that a ceasefire does not seem to be on the agenda?
No one is talking about that in this crisis. Even if a pause is being considered, as I told you, it’s not enough. What can be done to better protect the members of your respective organizations?
[English]
Mr. Belliveau: Thank you so much for that question. That’s been a profoundly difficult thing to manage. Right from the early days as an organization, all of us in the humanitarian sector have a strong obligation, duty of care, to our staff. Right since the beginning, that’s been a primary concern.
We’ve tried to get people down to the south. We were able to evacuate 22 of the 367 employees a few weeks ago. But many of them, if not most of them, really insisted on staying behind and were very personally torn. Do I try to go to a relatively safer part of Gaza in order to be with my family, and preserve myself, or do I heed my humanitarian and my medical calling and stay here and work with the patients as much as I possibly can?
So many of them have chosen the latter, but at great personal risk. Now we know that we’ve lost some of our colleagues because of that.
Right now, from a distance and as an organization, it’s incredibly difficult to know that we have colleagues and many other medical professionals who are at such risk, some of whom are losing their lives. We are relatively helpless in terms of how much we can help them, and that comes back to precisely what we’re here today for, and what we’re asking for. We’re asking the Canadian government — and we’re doing this around the world. We’re asking governments to put as much pressure as they possibly can. Both parties to the conflict have indicated they will resume hostilities after this brief pause, so we know that is insufficient, and that’s why we’re really pressing for a sustained end to the hostilities.
The Chair: That brings us to the end of the first round, but I too have a question. I sort of posed it yesterday.
There’s a traditional approach to humanitarian campaigns. When there’s a crisis, the call comes from New York, the donor community reacts, there’s proportionality, funds are diverted into the various specialized agencies and other partners, and something similar goes on with trusted partners. We’ll be hearing from some of them in the next panel.
This is a crisis, probably of unprecedented proportions, and of course, it’s not the only part of the world where there’s a need for UNICEF, Médecins Sans Frontières and other partners to be active. One of the things I worry about is donor fatigue. There are all kinds of formula for match-funding and getting citizens involved and the like, but I would be very curious, first of all, to get an impression from Ms. Wreikat right there in New York at UNICEF central as to your concerns about the sense of the donor community. There are traditional donors and non-traditional donors, and some of them are neighbours to the conflict, in fact, who are fairly well resourced. I would welcome some comments on that.
Ms. Wreikat: Thank you, senator. What we’re facing now in terms of the humanitarian landscape is really unprecedented. We’re seeing multiple crises. The emergencies are increasing in frequency, intensity and scale. As we respond now to Gaza, we also have Sudan and countries in the Sahel, whether it’s Mali, DRC, Burkina Faso or Somalia. Next year, we’re looking at what the forecasts are for the Horn of Africa, Yemen and Syria. There are also risks of spillover of this crisis in the Middle East region, especially Lebanon and Syria.
We’re looking at all of these risks, and we’re responding in all of these countries. Definitely, we engage with the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, states, and they support a number of initiatives. I know that there is also a deliberate effort from the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, or ERC, and from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, to reach out to the Gulf donors.
The COP event is happening now in the United Arab Emirates, also known as UAE. From our end, we will be launching our humanitarian appeal from Qatar, which is appealing to all member states. We definitely need support and contributions from everyone, including traditional and non-traditional donors. We also have our national committees that mobilize funding from the private sector.
Definitely, the situation is really very challenging. We are also looking at, unfortunately, a humanitarian envelope that is going to be very challenging to maintain and sustain the response across the globe.
I’ve mentioned the nexus approach. From our end, that’s why putting systems in place and resorting to sustainable solutions is so important. I’ve mentioned that water trucking is one option in Gaza, but that’s just for maybe a few weeks. Then we need to make sure that the systems and the sanitation plans are rehabilitated so that we provide water.
From our end also, as the UN community, we will need to basically invest more in system building and sustaining these systems so they don’t collapse during conflicts and crises and so it’s a cost-effective and sustainable response.
We hear you, and definitely, we’re reaching out to all member states who can support in this crisis, as we’re severely underfunded.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
Senator Coyle: I have two questions, one for each of our witnesses.
For Ms. Wreikat from UNICEF, thank you again for being with us. You mentioned at the beginning, the Israeli children who have been affected, both those killed and those who are being held as hostages. Does anybody have any credible information on the status of those 30 children who are being held hostage?
As a follow-up to Mr. Belliveau, with the call for a sustained ceasefire, I’m curious what that means and whether you or anybody else who is calling for a sustained ceasefire have any indication that Hamas is able to be influenced to participate in such a ceasefire. We mostly think about the Israeli Defence Forces, also known as the IDF, but also, the reason we hear that Israel will not go for a ceasefire is that Hamas will not honour that. That’s one of the things we hear.
Ms. Wreikat: Thank you. In terms of the children who have been taken hostage, we did meet with the families of these children, and we definitely committed to advocating with parties engaged in the political negotiations for the unconditional release of these children held hostage in Gaza. We hope they will be part of, basically, the deal for this pause and that they will be released. We don’t have further information at this point in time as to whether they’re released and how many have been released. Definitely, we have met with their families and we are following up.
Mr. Belliveau: To the question of whether the parties to conflict will honour this ceasefire or even a pause, but if there were a sustained ceasefire, would they honour it? We don’t know. We can’t speak to that part of it.
Again, I come back to the fact that it is unusual for us to make such a call and just ask the parties to the conflict to put down their weapons. We had been able to operate in this context for decades, in fact, and as of October 7, it has no longer been possible. There’s just no space anymore. The health system has been obliterated. There’s no space to provide humanitarian assistance. It’s from that reality that we’re saying, hey, put down the weapons.
The reason why it’s a sustained ceasefire, again, if this isn’t sustained over a long period of time, we will not be able to get back in there to restart the medical activities.
Senator M. Deacon: I’d like to come back to Ms. Wreikat about the first part of the question that I asked previously, just to follow up. In terms of the hostage pause conditions for a prisoner swap, I was surprised to hear of Palestinian minors who are part of this swap and who are imprisoned in Israel.
How long have these children been imprisoned? Do we know for what reason they’re being held or what the role of UNICEF might be upon their release?
Ms. Wreikat: Thank you for your question. In terms of the children detained in Israel, the number is over 100, and each will have a specific different case.
In terms of the negotiations, we’re not really taking a direct role other than advocacy with the member states at this point in time, but we understand that if there will be a release, whether for the hostages or the kids who are held on security grounds in the Israeli prison, that they may be allowed to be visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC, but beyond that, really, no detailed granule information with us or with me at this point in time.
The Chair: If I could just ask a question of precision of Ms. Wreikat. For your definition of “child,” what is the age limit that you use?
Ms. Wreikat: Eighteen.
The Chair: Thank you.
[Translation]
Senator Gerba: I just wanted to continue with my earlier question. Are you in contact with the Canadian government and authorities? What can Canada do to better protect the members of your respective organizations on the ground?
[English]
Dr. Nickerson: Yes. We are in regular contact with the Canadian government. Quite honestly, we’ve been making a number of public statements to try and bear witness to what it is that our teams are seeing. We are sharing updates regularly, very much focused on the humanitarian situation.
As we’ve mentioned, this is a crisis where the global community needs to be calling for a ceasefire and pushing for sustained humanitarian access. Canada, as an influential country with a seat at many different tables, needs to be pushing for this. Ultimately, what we need is assurances of safety for our staff and our patients, and sustained access to be able to bring in medical and humanitarian supplies, but also to be able to rotate our teams who are working. It is our intention to provide medical care when the conditions allow for it and to scale up a humanitarian response. Continuing to push for these conditions to exist is what countries like Canada need to continue to do.
The Chair: We’ve come to the end of this panel and session. On behalf of the committee, I’d like to thank Joseph Belliveau, Jason Nickerson and Lana Wreikat for having joined us today. It’s a very difficult, heavy subject, and we appreciate your efforts and those of your organizations. I dare say I don’t see a rapid solution to this situation, so we will very likely, as a committee, be returning to the subject and may call upon you again. Thank you very much.
Colleagues, we’re continuing with our second panel. We’re pleased to welcome to the committee Dalia Al-Awqati, Head of Humanitarian Affairs, Save the Children Canada; Patrick Robitaille, Senior Advisor, Policy and Government Relations, Save the Children Canada; Barbara Grantham, President and CEO, CARE Canada; Julie McKinlay, Deputy Director, Humanitarian and Resilience Programs, CARE Canada; Béatrice Vaugrante, Executive Director, Oxfam-Québec; and Céline Füri, Humanitarian Coordinator, Oxfam-Québec.
Colleagues, these are all very well-established partner organizations, I can say that from my distant past having worked with all of them. I’m sure they will give us an interesting perspective on the situation in Gaza.
Dalia Al-Awqati, Head of Humanitarian Affairs, Save the Children Canada: Good afternoon, I oversee Save the Children Canada’s humanitarian programs, and my colleague Mr. Robitaille works tirelessly to advocate for the rights and protections of children, including those children in Gaza, who today live with the constant threat of violence. Time is of the essence. By the end of this statement, another child will have been killed in Gaza.
Since the latest escalation in the conflict, Save the Children and the other organizations present, have been working together in Canada and globally to demand an urgent and lasting ceasefire. My statements today are through the lens of Save the Children’s 100 years of experience, working to address children’s needs and rights. Every year, we respond to emergencies across 120 countries.
Save the Children Canada has been working in the occupied Palestinian territory for almost 70 years. As you know, we’ve been witnessing unprecedented violence in Gaza, and we, in Canada, must do everything we can to stop it. To protect the lives and well-being of the children currently trapped there. Gaza is smaller than the island of Montréal, and houses over 2 million Palestinians, almost half of whom are children. It’s one of the most densely populated places on earth. Over a million children live in an area that has experienced relentless bombardment. Over the past six weeks, a child has died every 10 minutes, that’s approximately six classrooms of students in Canada killed every day.
Let me share with you the words of Amir, a Save the Children staff member in Gaza, and father to a 7-year-old girl. He recently told us:
Little Nana ran to me, as usual because it was safe for her. But the roar of the swarms of killing in the sky, hovered above like a terrifying nightmare.
In a moment the world is lit with a great light, we all fall to the ground and try not to hear, hugging each other, through inhales and exhales, Nana tells me: “I love you, Baba.”
The darkness turned into hell with the smell of gunpowder and blood.
My little girl, with a fragile made up confidence tells me, shivering, “Baba, I am not afraid, just nervous!”
After a wave of violent bombing, Nana draws a picture, in which there is a house, a garden, a sweet sun, and a clear sky free of swarms. She did not draw birds in the sky, maybe she has even become afraid of birds.
She started explaining her plans, “if we stay alive,” we would always stay together and go to my aunt’s and grandpa’s house. But Nana doesn’t know that her aunt’s house has evaporated, taking with them their memories, warmth, family gatherings, our joys and tears, and become rubble.
For those who have managed to survive, they’ve been categorically deprived of food, clean water and health services, and this war is stripping children of their sense of safety, the comfort of their parents and caregivers, and the coping mechanisms needed to endure a cyclical trauma where death is not the only consequence.
Last year, save the children’s research in Gaza found the mental health of children, young people and caregivers was at a breaking point. Children spoke of living in a perpetual state of fear, worry and sadness, and many shared vivid memories of the bombings they had, experienced recalling how their homes and schools were destroyed and their loved ones killed. Today, children live in constant fear for their own lives, the lives of their families and the anxiety of not knowing when the next bombardment will come to tear them apart.
In the first three weeks of this escalation, 580 Palestinian families lost between two and nine members, and another 192 Palestinian families lost ten or more members, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Last year, children in Gaza spoke about their desire to experience joy, calmness, safety, love and optimism. Those desires seem an impossibility now. Today, they simply long for their homes — many of which have been damaged or destroyed — their schools and their toys, comforts all children, including our own, want. Many also grieve for parents, siblings, friends and relatives they will never see again.
As we speak, children in Gaza are suffering grave violations of their rights as per the 1999 UN Security Council Resolution. Make no mistake, this is a war against children. It will have a lasting impact, one that surpasses the death, disease, hunger and trauma that we see today. Save the Children Canada, along with the organizes here and countless more across Canada and the world, demand an immediate lasting ceasefire to protect all civilians. Senators, we call on you to use your imminent voices to ensure that Canada does everything in its power to protect the children of Gaza. Thank you.
The Chair: Thank you very much for that powerful statement.
Barbara Grantham, President and CEO, CARE Canada: Thank you to all of you for having us here today. I also want to express my thanks to my colleagues here, because I know all of us are living through unprecedented, stressful times, and all of us wake up every morning hoping that our colleagues around the world, particularly in Gaza, are safe.
CARE has been operating in the West Bank in Gaza since 1948, helping people meet basic food needs by improving farming and agricultural practices, supporting women’s leadership, and improving gender-based health outcomes and children’s mental health. Women and girls are at the centre of all that we do.
One year ago this month, I had the privilege of visiting and witnessing CARE’s work in the Gaza Strip, including the incredible resilience of our team there. Since the beginning of this October, I wake up every morning wondering if our humanitarian colleagues and my friends have survived the night, if they will be able to feed their children or find enough water to make it through the day. Let me be clear, our team members are surviving in the same precarious conditions as everyone else, displaced from their homes, still bravely trying to carry out our humanitarian mission, and doing their very best to help the most vulnerable.
CARE has been able to distribute emergency medical supplies, hygiene kits and drinking water to thousands of people, despite overwhelming challenges. To provide medical help, we support mobile health clinics, but the unprecedented levels of fighting put the lives of every single person in the Gaza Strip at risk, including the people who are providing help. As a humanitarian community, we are deeply concerned about the impact of this violence, and in the case of CARE, the impact on women, girls, children and the elderly, who are particularly vulnerable.
Right now, pregnant women cannot access basic pre- and post‑natal care or emergency obstetric care if they need it in order to deliver their babies safely. Fact: Over 180 women give birth in Gaza every day. Right now, they are doing so without any medical assistance, some in overcrowded shelters or on the streets amid rubble, where they risk medical complications and infections for themselves and for their newborn babies.
Earlier this month, we started to receive reports of women undergoing Caesarean sections without proper anaesthesia, of young mothers unable to breastfeed because they lack proper nutrition, and being forced to use contaminated water to prepare their baby formula, which in and of itself is very scarce.
As men, women, girls and boys are forced into overcrowded shelters, our team tells us that protection and gender-based violence risks are on the rise. There is very limited access to sanitation facilities and hygiene supplies, putting women at risk of diseases and skin infections. Imagine having one shower for every 700 people and one toilet for 150 people. Imagine being a young woman or girl having to deal with your menstrual hygiene within that context. There is no privacy. This is not human dignity.
Together, with our sister humanitarian organizations here in Canada and around the world, we urge you to add your voices in calling for an urgent and sustained ceasefire. A lasting ceasefire is needed to enable full, safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance. To respond to the unimaginable humanitarian suffering, the plight of women, girls and other vulnerable people, we need a ceasefire to gain access and save lives. We also urgently need the resumption of water, electricity and the internet to Gaza. We also need the unconditional release of civilian hostages and the evacuation of patients and other vulnerable people to get the help and care they need.
In these dark times, I now remember daily the hope that I experienced when I visited one of the most impoverished areas of Gaza almost exactly one year ago. This area at the northern end of Gaza near the Erez crossing had very high rates of gender-based violence, yet the women’s co-operative that I visited was a hub and a beacon of hope. With 14 small enterprises, each employing 30 to 40 women, they produced food and baked goods for Gaza’s bakeries, retail stores, restaurants and markets, as well as for school food programs, hospitals and other social needs.
It was beyond inspiring to see how these skilled, enterprising women were supporting their families and improving their lives, despite unimaginable challenges.
That memory answers for me the question of why we need a lasting ceasefire: to focus on saving lives, to enable the tenacity and strength of women such as them — women of hope, women of courage and women of strength. Thank you.
The Chair: Thank you very much, Ms. Grantham.
[Translation]
We will now hear from Béatrice Vaugrante, Executive Director of Oxfam-Québec.
Béatrice Vaugrante, Executive Director, Oxfam-Québec: Mr. Chair, I will share my speaking time with my colleague. She will go first.
The Chair: As you like. Thank you very much.
Céline Füri, Humanitarian coordinator, Oxfam-Québec: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I’m Céline Füri, and I coordinate humanitarian work at Oxfam-Québec.
Our expertise and experiences are complementary to those of the organizations you’ve heard from today, but our observations, dismay and requests to you are similar.
Let’s talk first about water, on which Oxfam has been carrying out in-depth work in Gaza since 2006. Today, only 17% of pre‑war water is available throughout the Strip. More than half the wells and water treatment and pumping stations have been destroyed. In all of northern Gaza, this siege within a siege, none of them work anymore.
Gaza City is flooded with sewage because of sewers damaged by air strikes and a lack of fuel for treatment plants. In the overcrowded shelters, we have heard even worse figures than my CARE colleague. We’re told about 300 to 600 people sharing the same toilet, and an average of 4,500 people using the same shower.
In the northern territories, there’s no drinking water at all. People have to drink salty, polluted sea water. We are told that a number of young mothers throughout Gaza have stopped producing the milk they need to feed their newborns because of a lack of water.
Restoring water and electricity to Gaza is not just an infrastructure issue. It’s absolutely essential for preventing an impending public health crisis, as indicated by the unprecedented number of gastroenteritis cases reported by hospitals.
As electricity in Gaza is heavily dependent on fuel, the reopening of pipelines for a steady supply of fuel is absolutely essential to ensure that drinking water is accessible. The meagre quantities of fuel delivered by truck over the past few days are woefully inadequate to keep pumping, desalination and water treatment plants running.
Let’s now quickly turn to food security, which we normally support in Gaza, too. For the past month and a half, Oxfam teams have witnessed first-hand the food reserves that are running out or cannot be accessed owing to a lack of fuel, flour mills and bakeries destroyed one after the other, and the total ban on markets and grocery stores importing food.
Moreover, food aid over the past month has only been allowed in dribs and drabs through the Rafah crossing alone, whereas there are other, better-equipped crossings, such as Kerem Shalom. For the time being, the aid is only reaching southern Gaza, after hours of logistical and bureaucratic obstacles. As a result, the food available is catastrophically insufficient. It meets one tenth of the population’s food needs.
This situation is avoidable and, in Oxfam’s view, amounts to using famine as a weapon of war, a practice totally contrary to international humanitarian law.
For more than a month, many of our humanitarian organizations have been relentlessly calling on states to use their diplomatic influence to put an end to this agony imposed on more than 2 million people. Here in Canada, we are concerned by the government’s silence regarding the total siege that is blocking the free flow of water, electricity, food and medication into Gaza.
Ms. Vaugrante: The announced pause in hostilities will enable — and we welcome this — the release of a number of Israeli and foreign hostages and Palestinian detainees, which was one of the demands of humanitarian organizations from the outset. This pause in the incessant bombing and destruction, which is causing the population to suffer, is a welcome respite that will perhaps allow them, for a time and with a little dignity, to mourn their lost loved ones.
Mourning is important, too, but it cannot be done right now. After all, this is a band-aid on a deep wound, which will be torn off in four days. It’s a pause.
In the exceptional context of Gaza’s massive destruction, these four days are tantamount to killing hope for every Gazan. It will take weeks to get aid to every part of the Gaza Strip that needs it. To replenish food or medical stocks, repair water systems or rebuild homes, time is needed for logistics, but also time for the trust of donors, the trust and safety of humanitarian staff, the trust and safety of the population, in the idea that repair is possible.
This symbolic relief must not distract us from the only humanitarian solution that really matters — a ceasefire. Canada must urgently advocate for this truce to be transformed into a sustainable ceasefire quickly, before winter, to ensure the free flow of humanitarian aid across the crossings into Egypt and Israel, including the vitally important supply of fuel, while guaranteeing the release of all hostages.
The Senate is a fundamental space for nurturing Canada’s foreign policy based on independent thinking and principled positions. We ask for your help in raising the imperative of a ceasefire and the lifting of the total siege of Gaza in the name of international humanitarian law and respect for life by all parties.
Beyond the operational necessity of a ceasefire to deliver the aid to which the Canadian government is contributing, there are the principles that are the strength of what Canada is on the international stage and that must prevail all the more, even in this increasingly complex world. Human rights must be applied in difficult situations. Canada’s moral credibility is at stake for the future.
If, after 15,000 innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives have been lost, 70% of them women and children, Canada does not show the courage to demand the protection of civilians in this conflict, how will it be able to do so credibly in future crises? How can it participate in the peace process? How will it be able to defend international law if it remains an à la carte menu exercise?
The application of double standards by governments in the western world undermines our place in the world with the people. We must restore hope. We must break the perpetual cycle of conflict-truce-rebuilding.
Thank you so much for inviting us.
The Chair: Thank you.
[English]
Colleagues, we have heard four very important powerful statements. We’ll open the question round with four minutes each. Please try to be as concise as you can.
Senator Harder: Thank you to our witnesses not only for your statements but, through you, for the work that you and your colleagues are doing on the ground.
Your statement is very tragic and very moving. Your call for a ceasefire is one that I readily acknowledge needs to be spoken of.
This morning, I received a message from a group of British public servants from both the Muslim and Jewish communities. They issued a joint statement of concern calling for the kinds of actions you speak about.
Your organizations are deeply rooted in Canadian communities across the country. Have you thought of or are you doing work with the diasporas of Canada to bring a common cause to the issues you are raising, particularly with respect to children, so that we might have a strengthened voice from Canadians on the very issues that you’re raising?
The Chair: Let me just interject quickly. We don’t usually have a panel of six, so it will be rather interesting. I ask senators to direct their questions if they can. If there’s time within the allocation, we’ll try to hear from as many of the witnesses as we can as well.
Senator Harder, who do you want to ask?
Senator Harder: All three.
[Translation]
Ms. Füri: From the very first days of the current escalation, we have found it important to break out of the humanitarian bubble and join forces with other sectors of civil society that had the same objectives. Many of our organizations have co-signed a petition calling for a ceasefire. You can find it at ceasefirenow.ca, and it’s now a broad coalition of labour organizations, climate organizations, human rights organizations, community organizations, humanitarian organizations and also Jewish, Muslim and Christian professional organizations, among others.
About 250 organizations have co-signed so far, and the aim is to show that we’re really putting up a united front, that we’re supporting the same demands throughout the population, across Canada, and that it’s not a denominational issue, it’s not a corporate issue, it’s not a partisan or even political issue.
As our colleague from Doctors Without Borders said, we have to do this in the name of human life. Yes, we’ve cast a wide net and we’re working with Independent Jewish Voices Canada, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, NCCM, and other organizations, including Jewish and Muslim ones.
[English]
Patrick Robitaille, Senior Advisor, Policy and Government Relations, Save the Children Canada: We have worked hard with Oxfam here in Canada and with many other organizations. As a crisis, it is unprecedented how we’ve joined all around the world. The ceasefire movement is now coordinated jointly with Muslim and Jewish voices and people in more than 60 countries. We are really joining with all of the communities for the ceasefire, for the reasons you’ve heard today. We will continue to do so in Canada and around the world.
Julie McKinlay, Deputy Director, Humanitarian and Resilience Programs, CARE Canada: It’s not a new challenging context. We know there are many varied opinions and things like that, as my colleagues have spoken to. There is a massive coming together of organizations in this context in particular because of the severity of the situation that we’re seeing. It really comes back to the reality that, as humanitarians, the focus needs to be on those immediate lifesaving needs. That’s where we need to continue to advocate every day for things like a ceasefire, so we’re able to do the work that our organizations do to literally save the lives on the ground.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
Senator Coyle: Thank you to all of our witnesses for your testimony this afternoon. Thank you for your work.
I have two questions, and one builds on Senator Harder’s question. Mr. Robitaille, you started to touch on it.
Each of your organizations belongs to international networks — CARE, Save the Children, Oxfam. Are any of your partners in other countries — I don’t mean in the global south but in Europe, for example, or in the U.S. — getting any traction with their governments on the ceasefire point of view? Then I have another question on winter coming, if I have time.
[Translation]
Ms. Vaugrante: Oxfam has contacted all the government authorities in the countries where it is present, including those of the G7, among others, and the doors are open. We can get in quite easily and they listen to us. For the moment, we are being listened to. There’s no clear position on what a ceasefire may bring. What we’re afraid of now — the situation is already untenable — is the number of deaths, which can only increase exponentially from now on because of winter, because of empty shelves and because of everything we’ve told you this morning. That’s why it’s all the more urgent now, but yes, we can reach government authorities quite easily.
[English]
Mr. Robitaille: We are seeing some traction. Of course, different countries have different communities and governments in power. It is difficult, but we can say that everyone is looking at one another right now. Who will move and who will say what?
The Canadian government has announced some funding, creating movement for Europeans to say, “Okay. Clearly, in Gaza, there are needs and we will continue.” It is the same thing with some of the wording. A ceasefire is something that will happen. At the end of each escalation, all parties stop and have a ceasefire. It will come one way or another. France has started to call for it. That’s where it will go, but how fast will it go? We are working tirelessly, all of us together, meeting with the governments, trying to meet with ministers. Thank you for giving us this chance today to meet with you.
Ms. Grantham: I’ll add a couple of quick thoughts to those of my already very articulate colleagues. CARE is an international confederation like the other two organizations that you have here at the table. We have 22 members, 8 of which are actually in the global south. Fourteen are in what we would call the global north. Again, like my colleagues, our peers in the United States, the U.K., Australia and across Europe are doing much the same as we do here today. They are asking their decision makers, their parliamentarians, to take the same step, with varying degrees of success.
I also offer a reflection that the degree to which this crisis has brought about questions and conversations of a wrenching nature inside our own organizations is not lost on us. The dialogue that is playing out across this country is playing out within our own organizations. We feel this very, very acutely. I would not want to let that stay unstated.
I also offer to elaborate a little bit on what Patrick Robitaille said. In two instances, Canada’s clarity of moral courage has not gone unnoticed — within our community and within the broader global community. In the very early days of this crisis, there were two specific instances. The first was the immediate commitment of $10 million to humanitarian assistance. Canada was the first place out of the gate. The second was the commitment not to cut funding to Canadian humanitarian organizations that work in Gaza. Both of those were important for us to be able to take forward into the international context.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
Senator M. Deacon: In this hearing today, I’m reminded that sometimes we grill witnesses. Sometimes just listening to and learning from all of your perspectives are powerful. That’s a big part of today. The staff and the environments were mentioned a few moments ago by Ms. Grantham. I’m looking around. You must have 160 years of experience in humanitarian aid at the end of the table, and I can’t thank you enough.
I will direct my question to Save the Children. As we know, before the war, two thirds of the trucks that were able to enter Gaza were entering through the Kerem Shalom access. Since the attack, that crossing, as we all know, has been closed and any aid entering has to go through Rafah, which involves an extra 100‑kilometre journey for inspections and added difficulty of operating in Egypt.
I’m curious as to how organizations like yours are navigating through this and getting aid. We know we’re having a pause. I’m trying to understand how you’re navigating getting aid there. Through your networks, do you see a hope or any language around the Kerem Shalom entrance opening during this pause?
Ms. Al-Awqati: We have been navigating that specific barrier. I will say that we have been providing assistance from the depleted supplies, whatever remains inside Gaza, as many of our other colleagues have been.
We have been able to get trucks across the Rafah border crossing, five trucks in total. We have many more on standby right now. That’s actually due to, first, our presence in Egypt, where we have been prepositioning supplies, and our regional presence.
It’s very much a lot of effort. The bottom line is it has taken exponentially larger amounts of effort, and the work has gone across multiple countries to make sure we are able to get assistance either via land or into El Arish and then to Rafah.
Those five trucks that came in, three of them sat at the border for 10 days before the first one went in. Those trucks that we see today, whether they are 10, 20 or 100, are subject not only to inspection but to daily calculations, a daily weighing of options that happen, whether it’s by NGOs or by UN agencies, as to what goes across today. Do people drink water or do they have soap? Do we get fuel, which we as an NGO have not gotten, to power a small part of the medical need, or do we support water and sanitation? Do we support people who have left with nothing? These are daily negotiations, daily considerations, that are having to be made. That is a clear and obvious result of the restrictions on humanitarian access.
So, yes, we absolutely do need the second border crossing to open. We have no idea where the status of those conversations are, but right now, that possibility seems very far.
We continue to work through our teams both in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Egypt and across the whole region to make sure that once that border opens, once we are able to get more trucks in, we can do so.
As we speak today, we have at least 10 trucks ready to go, waiting to cross that border with high thermal blankets, water. Not food, but water, recreational kits, hygiene kits, dignity kits — menstrual hygiene kits — and a lot more.
We will continue to do that, but it needs to be at scale. Eighty per cent of the population of Gaza was dependent on aid prior to this latest escalation of the conflict, 80%.
Senator M. Deacon: Thank you.
[Translation]
Senator Gerba: Welcome, witnesses, and thank you so much for this very powerful and touching testimony.
My question is for Ms. Füri. As you mentioned, fuel is one of the commodities most lacking in Gaza right now. Yet this source of energy is essential for the operation of generators in hospitals and for the stability of telecommunications. Recently, it would appear that it has been decided to ease these fuel restrictions somewhat.
Have you noticed any changes on the ground as a result?
Ms. Füri: Thank you for your question. From what we hear, fuel, which is absolutely essential for the production of much of the electricity — including the electricity used to run the water sanitation infrastructure — is largely insufficient. Over the last few days, around 70,000 litres a day have been coming in. I’m not even talking about water and sanitation, but just in general terms, for the aid trucks that come in, to get them to their destination.
That’s not even enough for half the aid delivery needs. Out of these 70,000 litres, I believe around 20,000 litres went specifically to the south of Gaza, to supply the water and sanitation infrastructures.
According to our observations, this is largely insufficient, as it is used to keep some of the infrastructure running for about 24 hours, but not all the infrastructure. We’re not even talking about northern Gaza, which remains inaccessible for the time being.
This gives me the opportunity to come back to the fact that yes, the ceasefire is one of our demands, and probably the main one. On the other hand, we mustn’t forget the very important demand that the Canadian government should make — the restoration of that essential service of fuel, as well as a second port of entry at the very least, if we are to provide meaningful humanitarian aid.
We can’t support aid and fund it without at the same time making these other two demands.
To come back to the question that was asked earlier —
[English]
There was some traction. The question was posed in English. Our U.S. colleagues at Oxfam told us that there were very concrete advancements made by the coalition of civil society there advocating with the U.S. Government in that the U.S. Government started to push the Israeli authorities a bit more strongly around the entry of fuel, and we thought that was very important progress. We would hope for this to be achieved here as well.
[Translation]
Senator Gerba: Thank you.
[English]
Senator Boniface: Thank you for being here and for your presentation, and also for the work that you and your organizations are doing around the world. This leaves us with a very real picture of what you’re dealing with.
In that context, what we heard yesterday and what we heard today were words like “unprecedented,” “catastrophic.” I’m interested, from your organizations’ duty of care responsibilities, how you balance that in the context of what you’re dealing with for your own staff. This is for all three, if there is time.
[Translation]
Ms. Vaugrante: It’s a huge responsibility. We have 30 Oxfam staff in Gaza at the moment and, of course, the first thing we do every morning is check to see if they’re still alive. They’ve moved with their families many times and half of them already have no homes.
We are extremely fearful every morning. You really have to applaud them. We’ll pass the word on to them because they valiantly continue to inform the media as best they can. They are still present on the ground and continue to provide all the support they can with our local partners, who are just as valiant.
There is a huge responsibility to protect our employees, I would say even here in Canada, of course on a much smaller scale. This is upsetting our agendas and operational plans. We weren’t waiting for the situation in Gaza to arise to do our work, of course. Even here in Canada, many people are distressed to see their colleagues.
Every day, we have to pay attention, communicate, offer support services. Often, some employees tell us that more needs to be done in one place or another. We have to reassure and assess the risks, and right now, it’s really exhausting work, but never as exhausting as it is for those out there.
[English]
Ms. Al-Awqati: If I can add to that briefly, for our colleagues across the occupied Palestinian territory where the escalation of violence has been, it is very difficult to speak, still, of a duty of care, but their duty of care is intrinsically tied up in the international community’s obligation to call for the respect of international humanitarian law, the non-targeting of civilians, the protection of humanitarian aid workers, including our own staff, medical workers, et cetera. It is very much tied up in that call for a lasting ceasefire. They cannot be separated. Our own staff, our Palestinian partners, as well are the same beneficiaries we are now having to serve. They themselves have to make difficult decisions. As many of them have told us, “Do we help our families, or do we help the internally displaced person that recognized us from assistance we provided two months ago?” That is the daily struggle.
So their duty of care is very much tied up in the actions that we here in Canada and across the world take.
Ms. McKinlay: Just to add the CARE Canada perspective, I am on call with our country director who is based in Ramallah. She starts her day, every day, going through a phone tree to call her colleagues in the West Bank — or in Gaza, excuse me, to see if they have survived the night. She ends her day with another round of phone calls to see if they survived the day. It is an amazingly different level of duty of care.
We operate in challenging contexts all over the world. This is different, and as my colleagues have said, the fact that they are sustaining their work in that context, we need to do our part and our responsibility of whatever we can from where we sit in the countries and the capitals that we sit in to encourage the ceasefire so that they can decrease that fear and that worry of wondering if our colleagues are still alive the next morning.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
Senator Greene: I feel overwhelmed by the information you’re presenting. I would like to ask: What would you have us do as a committee? And what would you have us do individually?
Mr. Robitaille: We were wondering ourselves as well, as we come to you. As a committee and individually, you know better than us what your own power is. When we say it’s unprecedented, it means that all of us have to take unprecedented actions.
We have been asking to write letters to members of Parliament. There were thousands of people who have never done that before in their life who have done that in this case.
You have a power of your own as a committee to seize the government of the importance of this and to take a braver role in this crisis when you hear — after seven weeks that you have heard organizations that have not been able to go in. To call for a duty of care for — we’re only asking to go to assist our colleagues that are there. We cannot even go in.
We all have to have very brave conversations with people that might have different views, and understandably, we are all concerned with a very complex situation that brings a lot of those emotions, but we do have to maintain our values, our standards — and we have made the call for a ceasefire — and to do everything that is possible from a Canadian perspective, with all of your relations as well as foreign, to take a bolder response, to maintain the dignity that we have as humanity.
Ms. Grantham: You asked a really important question, senator, which was what would you have us do? What would you have us do as a committee, and what would you have us do as individuals? We have been very clear about what we’re asking you to do as a committee. We have been very clear. We have been clear for weeks, actually, about what we’re asking the government to do and what I think every parliamentarian in this country is reflecting on, I’m guessing on a daily basis, depending on one’s personal affiliations and values. I leave that to your expertise about how to navigate the call to action that we’re asking you to take.
I will also ask you to consider the power of one, of what you can do as an individual. I’m going to ask each of you to sit down tonight and write a letter about something you have heard today that has touched your heart, touched your thoughts and caused you to reflect, and then to share that with people that you know and love and respect. That’s what I would ask you to do.
The Chair: Thank you. Anyone else on this subject?
[Translation]
Ms. Vaugrante: Let me quote Mahmoud Darwish: “We suffer from an incurable malady: Hope.” What’s missing right now for these 2.3 million people is hope. The idea that it will start again after four days is an unbearable thought.
[English]
Senator Ravalia: My sincere and heartfelt gratitude to you and your teams for all that you are doing. What has really been disconcerting for me in the last seven weeks is the polarization that we are witnessing in our societies, global cities with protests, a horrendous rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, neighbours becoming enemies, naming calling and division globally, whether it’s watching a vote at the United Nations or watching countries attempting to reach some sort of a settlement in this crisis.
I feel that as a result of this, the world that was already polarized has become even further divided. I hear everything that you say, but then from my own point of view, how is it that we reach these strongly opposing camps to come to some sort of rational appreciation that there has to be a clarity of moral courage, as you have alluded to. There has to be some respect for international humanitarian law so that an 18-month-old does not get their limbs blown to pieces and then have to face surgery without painkillers.
Is there some way in which your groups, through your international connectivity, can work towards finding a solution before we see even more carnage? I’m sorry. That’s a perhaps philosophical aerial view, but I think we’re all really struggling.
[Translation]
Ms. Vaugrante: As I mentioned in my introduction, double standards and references to international humanitarian law or à la carte human rights don’t help. The prevailing solution in this part of the world is, among other things, to attack the sources of impunity.
When you have a situation of 56 years of occupation, 16 years of blockade, insecurity for Palestinians and Israelis alike, the international community has to be brave enough to say that we have international justice systems. We need to document, of course, as you asked the question, to have investigators on the ground to document what’s going on. They can’t even get in. Then cases have to be brought to court.
As long as there is impunity, this cycle will continue.
[English]
Mr. Robitaille: Thank you for this. We are also concerned when we see a divided world. We were very concerned as well for ourselves, in which arena we are in when we speak on TV for the first time about the very intimidating context. What I have learned is that everyone cares for the children that are currently suffering. As organizations, together we have been saying it, the United Nations organizations have taken unprecedented moments to say a humanitarian ceasefire is necessary.
The United Nations Security Council has recently had a resolution, finally, with people that don’t usually agree with each other, and accountability must follow from that unity and go to, basically, as I said, children and innocent people. We all want peace. On both sides of the borders, everyone wants to have peace at the end.
We have to take the words and sense of international law that exists that everyone recognizes, and take a pause to make sure that it’s maintained, because that’s the world order we hope to keep.
Ms. McKinlay: As well, to echo, it comes back to the humanity of everyone. Women are undergoing Caesarean sections without anaesthetic. A child is dying every ten minutes. Those shouldn’t be polarizing issues. The context itself has complexities and polarizations, but at the end of the day, when we look back at this moment in history, we want to know that collectively we acted on the humanity to protect women and children and vulnerable populations.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
Senator Coyle: Thank you all for everything we have heard. I did want to ask you about winter coming.
I know it’s not the kind of winter we have here, but I understand there are rains and colder weather, and it’s a bad combination being wet and cold. There is also the water situation. Could any of you could weigh in?
We have already heard about the catastrophic existing situation, which is unprecedented. What does winter coming mean? What are you anticipating?
Ms. Al-Awqati: I can start.
The people that have left their homes, and the people — whether they are in shelters that are overcrowded or in homes that are overcrowded or sleeping on the street — do not have adequate resources to protect themselves from the cold. It is certainly a different winter. I am from the Middle East. That is where I spent the majority of my life, and it is a cold that sits in your bones. That’s what we say in Arabic.
They do not have protection, whether it’s infrastructure, whether it’s clothing, whether it’s blankets. They do not have gas, which means they do not have heaters. Many of them don’t even have tarps to cover themselves with. For those sleeping on the streets, that is what we have already been seeing this past weekend. This past week, actually, brought heavy rain to Gaza.
What does this translate to? It means exposure. It means a rise in health issues. It means further disease outbreaks. I guess, just to take a step back, also, to say that these are areas that are heavily cratered as well, so it’s not like having heavy rains outside our doors. It’s not even comparable to camping in the rain; this is far worse.
They do not have access to sufficient food. They do not have the caloric intake it takes to maintain their body heat. That is the situation we’re talking about, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Ms. McKinlay: This is the point in time where we see people making desperate choices beyond what they are already making. As my colleague has identified, they don’t have those options, so now is when they start making choices that put them at further risk. We see negative coping strategies. We see, in particular, women becoming even more susceptible to protection risks, because they are choosing to stay somewhere that is not safe for them, and we see cases where they are choosing to make other choices around what do they have to do to get food and water? They will make different choices for their own survival and for the survival of families, so the coming winter will compound that challenge for everyone.
The Chair: Thank you.
Senator Harder: You all have mentioned international humanitarian law and impunity. Can you tell us whether and how your organizations on the ground are, in an organized and disciplined fashion, registering violations of international humanitarian law for use in a post-conflict process?
Ms. McKinlay: Yes, as was discussed in the first panel, it’s complicated right now. The information systems, the access to information is challenging. I think whenever we have the opportunity to speak in forums like this and in other forums to convey those messages, that really is the effort. There are a lot of coordination mechanisms that happen on the ground. There are coordination mechanisms happening in Egypt and in Lebanon as well to try and do some of that. It’s probably not perfect, but we know in many of these cases, as well, the volume of violations we are hearing, we can often assume that there are more violations than those being reported. It’s probably not as accurate and detailed as we would like it to be, but, again, the efforts are what is possible in the context.
Ms. Füri: Some international humanitarian law violations are more evident than others. That will require time and independent investigation, which is also not our role to conduct as humanitarian NGOs, even though we communicate and we are in contact with, for example, the United Nations commission of inquiry that visited Ottawa recently.
But, of course, our people on the ground are witnessing some incidents and some situations that have quite clear elements of violations of this law, which I mentioned earlier, such as starvation being used as a weapon of war, or forcible transfer, if only through the evacuation order that was given on October 13. That pushed at least a million Gazans south. Those are more obvious examples which we are already talking about, and others will take more time to investigate.
Ms. Al-Awqati: There is nothing organized about anything that happens in Gaza today, and the only thing that is systemic is the violence, which is perpetual.
Some of the things that we do need to document include the need for accountability, and our communications, which we know are severely hindered. There is limited movement. We know that hundreds of thousands of people remain in northern Gaza, but these violations happen across the Gaza Strip. They are also happening in the West Bank.
There is hindered movement. We hear of safe passage and humanitarian corridors from northern Gaza into southern Gaza. They are not humanitarian corridors, nor is there a safe passage.
The United Nations recently reported that there were reports from people fleeing that they were separated, including women who were forced to leave their children behind.
But as for organized and systemic, there needs, again, to be a pause. There needs to be an ability to reach people, whether it’s through the phone or in person — preferably both — and there needs to be an ability to reach them repeatedly, because there are still population movements happening as we speak now. People are being forced to leave, whether it’s from northern Gaza or whether it’s around the southern parts of Gaza.
Ultimately, this responsibility is actually sitting on the shoulders of those same staff we talked about, those same staff where there is a duty of care that we cannot neglect, and so they are their own documenters of the violations that they have experienced. We need to be able to get to them, and we need them to be able to get to others, our staff and our partners across the board.
The Chair: Thank you very much.
We have come to the end of our time, so on behalf of the committee, I would like to thank Julie McKinlay, Barbara Grantham, Céline Füri, Béatrice Vaugrante, Dalia Al-Awqati and Patrick Robitaille for being here, for representing your organizations and for the work that you and your organizations do throughout the world, now particularly in Gaza. You have given us much to think about and much to reflect on. Speaking for my colleagues, we all appreciate that.
As you may have heard in the previous panel and even last evening when we were speaking with government and United Nations officials, this is an issue, I think, we’re going to come back to again and, probably, again, and your willingness to appear again, I think would be appreciated by the committee.
(The committee adjourned.)