Canada says Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City is ‘horrific’
Canada has sentenced the new Israel’s ground offensive to Gaza City, launched on Tuesday, as “horrible”.
The offensive “aggravates the humanitarian crisis and endangers the release of hostages,” said Global Affairs Canada in an article on X. “The government of Israel must join international law”.
“Canada is with international partners to urge an immediate and permanent ceasefire, without restriction-free humanitarian aid and the release of all hostages.”
The comments came after the Israeli army began its offensive on the ground expected in Gaza City overnight.
The troops have been operating on the outskirts of the city for weeks and began to go to the city center on Monday evening, a spokesman said. The Israel security firm approved the takeover of Gaza City in August.
International aid organizations have repeatedly warned an aggravation of the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory torn by the war, which houses around 2 million people.
Also on Tuesday, an independent inquiry commission of the United Nations Human Rights Council said that Israel was committing a genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Four of the five genocidal acts listed during the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide were carried out, determined the commission of three members.
“Israel categorically rejects the defammed diatribe” of the report, the Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Daniel Méron, said that the report did not mention the terrorist acts of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas and accumulating members of the anti-Semititic biases commission.
The Gaza War was launched by the attack on Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 kidnapped. Israel says that 48 hostages remain in Gaza, including 20 which would be alive.
The health authority managed by Hamas in Gaza claims that more than 64,800 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war. The count does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, but the figures are considered to be widely credible by the United Nations.
