Immigration minister says meeting with Israel's ambassador on Gaza was 'frustrating'

Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Thursday his conversation with Israeli Ambassador Iddo Moed earlier this month about Canada’s attempts to get Palestinians with family ties to Canada out of Gaza was “frustrating … on many levels.”

“People are dying in Gaza so we can’t expect these meetings to be full of pleasantries,” Miller told journalists during a news conference.

He said he and Moed agreed to disagree on a number of points. He did not elaborate.

“We understand where they’re coming from, reacting to a devastating terrorist attack,” he said. “But again, I made the point that we are trying to save lives.”

Miller also revealed that an undisclosed number of Palestinians have arrived in Canada since January.

His office said those people entered the country under “exceptional circumstances” and not through the special immigration program launched earlier this year to bring in Palestinians with family ties to Canada on a temporary basis.

The office said the Palestinians who did arrive are connected to an extended family member living in Canada. It would not disclose more information, citing concerns about privacy.

Miller said no one who has applied under the special immigration program has made it to Canada yet. The department said roughly 12 program applicants have managed to get through the Rafah crossing point out of Gaza and are now in Egypt, but they did so without help from the Canadian government.

Miller also said the Canadian government has managed to move some consular or diplomatic staff, and individuals with medical conditions, out of Gaza.

Displaced Palestinian children, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, shelter at a tent camp amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 29, 2024. (REUTERS)

The special program was announced in December and officially launched in January. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada has imposed a 1,000-person cap on the program but has said it can be adjusted.

Palestinian Canadians have told CBC News that some of their relatives have been killed in Gaza while waiting to get through the application process. Miller’s department has said it has to rely on the cooperation of both Israel and Egypt, which control the Rafah crossing, to bring applicants out.

Miller said he could not say whether the dozen who crossed through Rafah had to pay their way out with bribes. “But I do understand that in order to cross the border on your own, there are sums required,” he said.

During Thursday’s press conference, Miller described the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza as “probably the largest hostage-taking in the world,” adding “we are failing Gazans” who are facing death and starvation.

Months of violence have followed the events of Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killed approximately 1,200 people and took roughly 250 others hostage, according to Israeli accounts. Since then, Israeli strikes have killed approximately 29,000 people, according to Gaza’s Hamas-led health authority.

Palestinians wait for humanitarian aid on a beachfront in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Feb. 25, 2024. (Mahmoud Essa/The Associated Press)

Israel has repeatedly called for the release of all captives taken by Hamas, and negotiations are underway in Qatar. About 105 hostages were let go in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners during a temporary ceasefire at the end of last November.

United Nations officials have said some 576,000 Palestinians are on the brink of starvation.

Asked for clarification on what Miller meant when he referred to a “hostage-taking,” his office said the minister “was referring to Hamas using Palestinians as human shields.”

In response, the Israeli embassy told CBC News “it is important to note that it is Hamas, a terror organization, that is holding currently 134 hostages that are Israeli and foreign nationals.

“And in addition to that, [Hamas] holds the Gaza population hostage by starting this war, and by not letting the Israeli hostages out and laying down its arms.

“This is something that needs to be clarified.”