Canada will stop deliveries of military equipment to Israel. The head of American diplomacy goes to the Middle East on Wednesday March 20 to plead for a truce in Gaza, while Hamas accuses Israel of “sabotage” the negotiations by attacking the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza.
Information to remember
⇒ The Canadian Parliament voted to end arms deliveries to Israel.
⇒ Antony Blinken travels to the Middle East to encourage truce negotiations.
⇒ UN says restrictions on humanitarian access to Gaza could be a “war crime”.
Ottawa withdraws military support for Israel
Canada will stop sending weapons to Israel. “We are in a situation where the reality on the ground no longer allows us” to export weapons, a government source told AFP on Wednesday March 20. This announcement follows a non-binding vote by Canadian MPs, who adopted a non-binding motion calling for an “immediate ceasefire” and calling on the government to “cease the approval and transfer” of weapons to “destination Israel”. The head of Israeli diplomacy, Israel Katz, judged that the Canadian decision undermined “Israel’s right to defend itself”. “History will harshly judge this decision by the Canadian government,” he said in a brief press release. While US Senator Bernie Sanders, former 2020 US presidential candidate, welcomed Canada’s choice.
Already since September, Canada had “only approved permits for non-lethal goods” as communication tools, said the head of Canadian diplomacy, Mélanie Joly. “And given the rapid evolution of the situation on the ground, we have not approved any permits since January 8,” she assures. While affirming Israel’s right to defend itself, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has adopted an increasingly critical stance towards Israel. According to Radio Canada, Ottawa exported more than 21 million Canadian dollars of military equipment to Israel in 2022 and 26 million in 2021, placing Israel among the top 10 destinations for Canadian arms exports.
Blinken in the Middle East for a truce
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, will arrive this Wednesday in the Middle East to try to secure a truce of several weeks in the fighting in Gaza, where famine threatens the Palestinian population. Talks have intensified in recent days, notably with the visit of the head of Mossad (Israeli foreign intelligence services) to Qatar and a change in Hamas’ position which opened the door to a pause of a few weeks in the clashes after having unsuccessfully demanded a definitive ceasefire.
But the leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement, Ismaïl Haniyeh, accused Israel on Tuesday of “sabotaging” these negotiations by carrying out a major operation against the al-Chifa hospital in Gaza City since the day before. The army said on Tuesday that it had killed “dozens” of Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters in and around the hospital complex and had arrested “more than 300 suspects”.
Palestinian killed in West Bank
A Palestinian was killed Tuesday in the north of the occupied West Bank in an attack by Jewish settlers against his house, according to a local elected official, with the Israeli army suggesting for its part that one of its soldiers was at the origin of the attack. fatal shot. According to the mayor of the commune, the attack was carried out by “four settlers” from the neighboring settlement of Gitit, including “three in military uniform”, who “shot at him and fled quickly”. Violence is intensifying in the West Bank. Since the start of the war according to the Palestinian Authority, more than 430 Palestinians have been killed there by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers. At least seventeen Israeli soldiers or civilians have died in attacks, according to Israeli authorities.
Restrictions on access to Gaza could be a ‘war crime’
Israel’s severe restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and the possible use of hunger as a weapon could “amount to the use of starvation as a method of warfare, which constitutes a war crime,” said Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, at the regular UN briefing in Geneva.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, clearly designates Israel as responsible for the food situation in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli representation to the United Nations, for its part, affirmed on the contrary that Israel was doing “everything in its power to flood Gaza with aid, including by land, air and sea”.
Will the head of Unrwa be able to enter Gaza?
The United States said on Tuesday that Israel should allow the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) to enter the Gaza Strip, after he was refused entry. Philippe Lazzarini. The latter, who was in Jerusalem on Tuesday, judged that this refusal of entry was “unprecedented” for “the head of the main UN agency present in Gaza”. UNRWA has been at the center of controversy since Israel accused at the end of January 12 of its approximately 13,000 employees in Gaza of being involved in the deadly attack perpetrated on October 7 by Hamas on Israeli soil.