Canadians remained off the list of approved foreign citizens to exit the Gaza Strip as Canada's minister of foreign affairs reconfirmed that Canadians and their families will be able to leave in the coming days. Palestinians wait to cross into Egypt at Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Fatima Shbair

By The Canadian Press

israel-hamas war

Canadians still not cleared to leave Gaza, Blair says movement likely in coming days

Nov 3, 2023 | 12:50 PM

Canadians could be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip in “the coming days,” Defence Minister Bill Blair said Friday, but shared no firm timeline as Canadians faced another day of being left off the list.

Groups of people, including foreign nationals from several other countries, have been allowed to exit the Palestinian territory through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the last two days.

But Canadians have so far been excluded from the lists of those approved to depart, including the third one issued on Friday.

There are more than 450 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their family members who want to leave Gaza, which has been under siege and regular bombardment by Israel for more than three weeks.

Blair told reporters in Ottawa on Friday there is “no specific impediment” to getting those people out. He said the Canadian government is working closely with Israel, Egypt, the United States and the United Kingdom.

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He also says Canadian consular officials will be ready to help people as soon as they cross into Egypt.

Global Affairs Canada has not explained why Canadians have not made the list so far.

The department noted in written updates sent Wednesday and Thursday that the first group allowed to cross included citizens from eight countries with smaller groups of nationals in Gaza. It also said “Canada has one of the largest contingents of nationals in Gaza.”

The department has not said whether that would delay Canadians getting out, or why.

Thursday’s evacuation list from the General Authority for Border Crossings in Gaza, as presented on a widely shared Google spreadsheet, included 400 American citizens. The list shared Friday had 367 Americans. In one day, Britain has had 127 people listed as approved for departing through the Rafah crossing.

Jon Allen, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel, said the effort is “very complicated,” but he wasn’t sure if countries with the most citizens would end up being among the first or last to leave.

“It does make sense that if you have a higher number, then you’re going to try and reduce that number. But I don’t know if that’s the case,” Allen said in an interview Friday.

Allen helped oversee the 2009 effort to evacuate dozens of Canadians from Gaza during an earlier war between Israel and Hamas. He said these efforts involved communicating with several governments to get everyone on the same page.

He also said the United States has an outsized influence in the region and many would expect American citizens to be among the first to be able to leave, but other countries would likely not have much ability to get ahead of others.

“It is a war and there are these processes that are inevitably going to have to be gone through,” he said.

Concerns about the risk of Hamas sympathizers crossing into Egypt could be one reason for general delays, Allen said.

“There are a lot of considerations that they’re taking,” he said.

“The Canadians will come out, and I feel sympathy for all of those that are there.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday, calling once again for a humanitarian pause. Netanyahu says that will not happen until Hamas releases the hostages taken during surprise attacks on Israeli civilians on Oct. 7.

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly issued a late Thursday update on X, the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter, saying she has spoken with her counterpart in Israel, Eli Cohen, about the matter.

She said she also received confirmation of Egypt’s co-operation.

While the flow of foreign nationals leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing since Wednesday has been slow, officials with Global Affairs Canada say they are working around the clock to evacuate Canadians from the war zone.

They are asking Canadians to get their documents and “be ready to depart once we are informed that they can cross the border.” However, as of early Friday morning, Canada had not been added to the official approval list of “foreign passports” for travel through the Rafah crossing.

Joly’s message also noted that Global Affairs Canada would communicate the latest information directly with Canadians.

Allen was not surprised that Canada has sent consular staff to be somewhere near Rafah, but not the actual crossing.

“They’re doing everything they can,” he said. “And sending a consular officer to sit at the border when nobody is coming out (yet) is not going to help the situation.”

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians slain in the initial Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, which Canada has listed as a terrorist organization since 2002. In addition, around 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry claims Israel’s military response has killed more than 9,000 Palestinians.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2023.

— With files from The Associated Press.