#StrandedCanadians; #Ottawa; #EvacuationFlights, #IsraelHamasWar
Evacuation flights were announced by Ottawa earlier this week following a flood of calls from stranded Canadian citizens in Israel to the consular officials, and due to the cancellations of widespread commercial airlines in the region.
Of the roughly 5,700 Canadians registered in Israel, 1,600 people had expressed interest in potentially seeking assistance departing, the federal government said Thursday.
Eversince the violence erupted on Oct. 7, at least three Canadians have been killed including two Canadian men killed by Hamas gunmen at a music festival and an Israeli-Canadian mother who was killed in her kibbutz, a communal farming settlement.
Israel has continued its bombardment of the Gaza Strip killing roughly 1,800 people as of the seventh day of the war, according to the health ministry for the territory.
Due to the unavailability of airlifts, there are some 150 Canadians in the Hamas-controlled area without a humanitarian corridor in the region.
Ya’ara Saks, minister of mental health and addictions, was at Pearson Airport Friday and was reported saying that the evacuation flights out of Tel Aviv will continue “as long as there is a demand to do so.
