Canadian Armed Forces airdrop aid to Palestinians in Gaza
The Canadian Armed Forces flew a CC-130J Hercules aircraft over the Gaza Strip to conduct the drop, said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand and Defence Minister David McGuinty in a media statement.
Carney said in a social media post Monday that the "humanitarian disaster in Gaza is rapidly deteriorating."
"Canada is intensifying our efforts with international partners to develop a credible peace plan and will ensure aid moves forward at the necessary scale," he said.
Carney had posted video earlier in the week of Canadian aid pallets delivered to Gaza via Jordanian military aircraft.
Anand said in a separate social media post that she remains in contact with her counterpart in Jordan to ensure Canadian aid reaches Palestinians via air and land.
Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in March, arguing that Hamas had been selling vital supplies and food to pay its fighters. UN agencies say this was not happening to any large extent.
After 2 1/2 months, Israel allowed Americans to launch the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which set up aid distribution sites. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli army fire and American contractors while trying to access those sites.
Israel recently loosened some restrictions on food and medicine reaching the Gaza Strip in response to an international outcry over starvation in the Palestinian territory.
Global Affairs Canada said in a release Monday that Israel's ongoing aid restrictions are in violation of international law "and must end immediately."
"Canada reiterates calls for the guarantee of safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian organizations, including the opening of all crossings, the rapid approval of customs clearances and all humanitarian goods into Gaza, and the issuance of long-term visas for aid workers," the statement read.
On Wednesday, Carney cited Israel's aid restrictions and the need to preserve a path to a two-state solution as reasons for declaring that Canada would officially recognize a State of Palestine.
Carney said the move was conditional on the Palestinian Authority undertaking serious reforms and holding an election next year for the first time in two decades.
— with files from Dylan Robertson
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025.
Craig Lord, The Canadian Press
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Oxford's Miriam Margolyes: 'I'm not anti-Jewish, I'm anti-killing children'
Oxford celebrity Miriam Margolyes has hit back at calls to cancel her, stating she is not "anti-Jewish". The actress, who was born and grew up in the city, is well known to audiences around the world after starring as Professor Sprout in several of the Harry Potter films. Ms Margolyes was awarded an OBE in 2002 for services to drama, but there have been recent calls for this to be taken back. The 84-year-old, who is Jewish, recently spoke to The Big Issue about Israel's military campaign in Gaza. READ MORE: Miriam Margolyes blasts 'chickens**t' calls to take away OBE Miriam Margolyes was born in Oxford. She said that it reminded her of the Holocaust and added: 'The terrible thing I face is that Hitler won. "He changed us, made us like him.' The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) has responded to Ms Margolyes' remarks and has labelled them as 'repugnant'. A statement from the CAA said: "The fact she was born Jewish does not give her license to use her immense platform to spread anti-Jewish venom. READ MORE: 'This has to be the end of the road. She must be shunned by the showbiz world that has fawned and bowed until now.' Ms Margolyes, who is performing at the Edinburgh Fringe, has now hit back at the claims, stating that she is not anti-Jewish. "I'm not antisemitic, I'm anti-killing children," she said, as reported by Edinburgh Live. "I am criticising the Israeli government. But I am also criticising the Jewish people in the UK, the community that I belong to, which is not coming out in support of me. "I just want people not to kill each other."
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Iran orders a day of business and office closures to relieve electric grid in heat wave
TEHRAN (AP) — Authorities in Iran ordered government offices and banks across much of the country to close Wednesday as surging summer temperatures and a worsening water crisis strain the power grid. The state television announcement Tuesday is the second this summer. Iran hopes to ease electricity and water demand. As temperatures across the capital, Tehran, have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), authorities urged residents to avoid outdoor activities during peak heat hours and conserve water and energy. Iran produces some 62,000 megawatts of electric energy per hour at its peak but needs about 80,000 megawatts to meet its needs. Tehran and other cities already face two-hour electricity cuts every other day and experts warn cuts may increase to four hours. Protesters have gathered in front of Iran's national electric provider, Tavanir, demanding better grid management. Years of U.S. sanctions on Iran's oil and banking sectors, as well as difficulty in obtaining parts to operate and repair the electric grid, have made the country unable to properly maintain and upgrade its inefficient energy infrastructure. Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the country's only nuclear power source, went online in 2011 with Russian help but produces only 1,000 megawatts per hour and goes offline for maintenance each year for two months. Southern Iran is bearing the brunt of the heat. Abadan registered temperatures exceeding 50 Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) on Sunday, ranking the city among the hottest places on Earth during this summer's heat wave. In recent years Tehran has contended with recurring heat extremes and weakened infrastructure. Wednesday's planned office closures echoes a similar one-day public holiday in July 2024 and a two-day action in 2023. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
IDF to continue attacking Hezbollah until it disarms, even if leads to another war
Since the November 2024 ceasefire, the IDF has detected around 456 new threats and attacked Hezbollah over 500 times. The IDF has said that it will continue regular attacks on Hezbollah – despite the November 2024 ceasefire – until it disarms, even if this leads to another war. A significant part of this calculation is the ongoing substantial harm that the IDF has caused to Hezbollah's ability to threaten Israel to date. If pre-war Hezbollah had around 150,000 rockets and tens of thousands of launchers for firing rockets, as of now, the number of launchers is down to a couple of thousand, with the total number of rockets down between 70-80%. In practical terms, the implications are staggering given that this means that if pre-war Hezbollah could easily fire around 1,500 rockets at a time, now the Lebanese terror group can only fire some dozens at a time. Hezbollah also has lost virtually all of its multiple rocket launching platforms. This completely changes how Hezbollah operates, and limits its options for coordinated attacks, since it only has individual rocket launchers, which makes each rocket launch a strenuous and exposed effort. Hezbollah retains a small number of long-range precision rockets, but would struggle to fire them given that the areas where it would need to move them to in order to fire could leave them exposed to IDF attacks, and many of these areas have already been attacked in the past. Hezbollah's loss of Syria for smuggling weapons has hit the group hard in any rearming efforts. The new Syrian Sunni regime is blocking the vast majority of Iran's weapons smuggling efforts from Syria to Hezbollah on its own initiative and without any Israeli assistance as part of its opposition to the spread of Shiite influence. The IDF has attacked some cross-border positions between Syria and Lebanon as many as five times to determine whether they still represent a smuggling threat. IDF sources expressed some hope that Lebanon might eventually get Hezbollah to disarm, and are confident for now that Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem is heavily deterred and intimidated from launching a rocket attack on Israel. On the other hand, IDF sources said Iran continues to stream around one billion dollars into Hezbollah to prop it up, whereas the West is only sending Lebanon up to $250 million. IDF strikes Hezbollah terror targets in Lebanon. (IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) This disparity could keep Hezbollah overall in power even if it has lost some of its standing. Also, the military said it has attacked Hezbollah over 500 times since the November 2024 ceasefire. Some 230 of the attacks were killing Hezbollah terrorists, 90 were attacks on rocket launchers, 20 were attacks on Hezbollah bases or outposts, 40 were attacks on weapons storage areas, and three were attacks on Hezbollah's special forces Radwan training camps. These numbers, added to the Hezbollah terrorists killed before the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, mean that 4,000-5,000 operatives are dead and around 9,000 are wounded badly enough to be permanently out of fighting. Hezbollah manpower, munitions, threat to Israel significantly reduced since before war The IDF said that this meant over half of Hezbollah's standing army of 25,000 is out of service. Before the war, Hezbollah was also said to have tens of thousands more reservist fighters, but IDF sources estimate that only 10% of them are still active now. This is due to fear of being killed, or their commanders being killed, leaving no one really in touch with them, or a lack of weapons and arms. Also, the Radwan forces are down to 2,500-3,000 from their pre-war 6,000 numbers. They have also been reassigned to internal security issues, given how much smaller Hezbollah's forces are across the board, as opposed to being focused on potential attacks. Further, the IDF has said that, at least for now, there is no Hezbollah invasion threat, given how far they are being kept from the border. This does not mean that a small group of Hezbollah fighters could not surprise Israel in one or two spots. But the scenario of 6,000 Radwan invaders striking Israel all over the north simultaneously is not and will not be a threat for some time to come. The IDF is complimentary to the US on handling the dispute mechanism for resolving Hezbollah violations of the ceasefire, as opposed to UNIFIL pre-war. The IDF has submitted 1,263 violations. Of these, around 456 were new threats, many of which the IDF in the end dealt with, and 666 were passed on to the Lebanese army, which dealt with 546 of them, or 82%, properly. This is a high percentage of success, and the IDF credits the US for helping the Lebanese army follow through against Hezbollah. At the same time, the IDF still acts whenever needed, and some violations, which have multiple aspects to them, are dealt with by a mix of the IDF, the mechanism, and the Lebanese army.
