Canada to recognise Palestinian state at UN General Assembly
said Wednesday that it would recognise
Palestine
as a state, if the Palestinian Authority commits to making certain changes including holding elections.
Prime minister
Mark Carney
said he had discussed such changes in a call with Palestinian leader
Mahmoud Abbas
, and plans to formally recognise Palestine during the United Nations General Assembly in September.
The Canadian announcement follows
similar ones
by
France
and
Britain
, increasing the pressure on
Israel
to end the nearly two-year-old
war
in the
Gaza Strip
.
The Israeli foreign ministry condemned the decision in a social media post.
READ MORE
'The change in the position of the Canadian government at this time is a reward for Hamas and harms the efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and a framework for the release of the hostages,' the ministry said.
Mr Carney said the recognition was contingent on commitments by the Palestinian Authority to exclude Hamas from any government, to return hostages to Israel and to hold elections next year, the first since 2006.
After France said last week it would recognise Palestinian statehood, Mr Carney reiterated his party's long-running endorsement of a two-state solution with 'a free and viable Palestine living in peace and side-by-side in peace and security with Israel'.
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US says France's decision to recognise Palestinian state 'reckless'
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At the United Nations on Monday, Anita Anand, Canada's foreign minister, said her country would give the Palestinian Authority 10 million Canadian dollars, about €6.3 million, to help lay the foundation for an independent state.
After France's announcement, Britain said it would recognise Palestinian statehood, but with a caveat: it would hold off if Israel agreed to a ceasefire.
Mr Carney made his announcement following a call with British prime minister Keir Starmer on Tuesday in which the two leaders discussed 'the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza, as well as the United Kingdom's statement on the recognition of a Palestinian state,' Mr Carney's office said in a statement.
Before Mr Carney spoke Wednesday, Canada's foreign affairs department issued a joint statement from 15 countries, including France, Australia and Ireland, calling on other nations to either recognise the state of Palestine or 'express the willingness or the positive consideration' of its statehood before the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in September.
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Analysis: Was Keir Starmer pushed on Palestinian statehood or did he wait for right moment?
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]
Since he became prime minister in the spring, Mr Carney, the leader of the Liberal Party, has ratcheted up Canada's criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza and repeatedly condemned the humanitarian crisis there.
The decision to recognise Palestine as a state will almost certainly strain relations with the United States. Mr Carney's government is currently in trade talks with the Trump administration that, should they fail, could lead to increased tariffs as soon as Friday.
The move on Palestinian statehood will also likely be divisive domestically. During the recent Canadian election, the Conservative Party, campaigned on a platform that strongly endorsed the policies and actions of Israel in Gaza under prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It also promised to deport foreign citizens who participated in pro-Palestine demonstrations.
– This article originally appeared in
The New York Times
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RTÉ News
43 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Aid group says Israeli attack killed staff member in Gaza
The Palestine Red Crescent Society has said one of its staff members was killed and three others wounded in an Israeli attack on its Khan Younis headquarters in Gaza. In a post on social media platform X, the aid organisation said the fatality occured after "Israeli forces targeted the society's headquarters in Khan Younis, igniting a fire on the building's first floor". A video, which the organisation said "captures the initial moments" of the attack, shows fires burning in a building, with the floors covered in rubble. It comes two days after US envoy Steve Witkoff visited a US-and-Israeli backed aid station in the enclave to inspect efforts to get food into the devastated Palestinian territory. Nearly two years after the war began, UN agencies have warned that time is running out and that Gaza was "on the brink of a full-scale famine". The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said eight staff members from the Red Crescent, six from the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees were killed in an attack by Israeli forces in southern Gaza in March. Mr Witkoff met the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza as fears for the captives' survival mounted. He told the families in Tel Aviv that he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza. Meanwhile Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with relatives of two hostages held in the enclave, who were seen in videos released by Hamas, to express his "profound shock" over the images, his office said. Since Thursday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have released three clips showing two hostages taken during the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel. The images of Rom Braslavski and Evyatar David, looking emaciated after nearly 22 months of captivity, have sparked strong reactions among Israelis, fueling renewed calls to reach a truce and hostage release deal without delay. "The prime minister expressed profound shock over the materials distributed by the terror organisations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad," a statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said. It added the Israeli prime minister told "the families that the efforts to return all our hostages are ongoing and will continue constantly and relentlessly". In the footage shared by the Palestinian Islamist groups, Mr Braslavski, a 21-year-old German-Israeli dual national, and Mr David, 24, both appear weak and malnourished. Mr Braslavski and Mr David are among 49 hostages abducted during Hamas's 2023 attack who are still being held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead. Most of the 251 hostages taken in the attack have been released during two short-lived truces in the war, some in exchange for Palestinians in Israeli custody. Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to a tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed at least 60,332 people, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, deemed reliable by the UN.
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Irish Times
Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces: ‘They put on music and colourful lights and started dancing over us ... They had their feet on our backs'
'I wish that everybody unites and stands to talk about Palestinian detainees, to raise their voices,' says Fatima, a Palestinian woman from a refugee camp near Bethlehem, whose sons were first arrested as teenagers. 'I worry ... if they get to the point where they get married and start a family, they won't be able to have children because the fear they suffered was so intense ... I think about it all the time.' The detention of Palestinian minors by Israeli security forces is nothing new. 'Each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system. The most common charge is stone throwing, for which the maximum sentence is 20 years,' said Save the Children in 2020 . But human rights organisations say conditions for prisoners and detainees have become considerably worse over the past few years, particularly since the Hamas-led attacks of October 7th, 2023 . READ MORE Data released by Palestinian prisoners' rights organisations in April said at least 1,200 children were detained in the occupied West Bank in the 18 months after those Hamas attacks. About 200 Palestinian children in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces in the same period, according to figures from the UN humanitarian co-ordination office (OCHA). On July 23rd, two teenagers – a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old – were shot dead by Israeli soldiers near Bethlehem, with the military claiming the boys were throwing Molotov cocktails towards a highway. As of July 14th, there were more than 450 Palestinian minors in Israeli custody – one of them a girl, according to Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem. This included 87 in administrative detention. A B'Tselem spokesman said they have no information about the youngest detainee. The children are among more than 10,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, according to June figures from Ramallah-based Palestinian rights group Addameer, though the 'number of detainees from the Gaza Strip remains unknown due to the policy of enforced disappearance'. [ Israeli human rights groups accuse Israel of committing genocide in Gaza Opens in new window ] Addameer – which has received support from Ireland – is among other Palestinian rights and civil society NGOs declared 'terrorist organisations' by Israel. The experience was so traumatic that for a while I felt disconnected from reality — Palestinian former detainee Mehdi (17) In June, Addameer said at least 70 Palestinians had died in Israeli prisons since October 2023. They included 17-year-old Walid Ahmad, who was held without charge for six months, after he was allegedly accused of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. He died in March, with varying reports saying he was malnourished and was believed to have contracted amoebic dysentery and scabies. Ibrahim and Mehdi: separate stories, similar ordeals In Bethlehem governorate, The Irish Times met two Palestinian teenagers who has been held in Israeli detention facilities within the past year. They were interviewed separately but details of their accounts were similar. The interviews were facilitated by an NGO that works with former child detainees, with staff requesting that the organisation not be named to protect its work. Due to policies related to how the NGO interacts with beneficiaries, The Irish Times did not press the minors to say what exactly they were accused of or whether they were guilty, though a staff member from the NGO said at least 70 per cent of arrests of minors are related to throwing stones. Sahar Francis, a lawyer who has worked with Addameer, said children also get arrested for 'inciting violence [through] social media activities,' and that there has been an increase in the number of children held under administrative detention: 'serious since it means children are arrested based on secret information without clear evidence.' Francis said the military courts that Palestinian children are tried under cannot guarantee a fair trial, and children do not receive protections in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, despite Israel being a signatory, and an International Court of Justic e ruling in 2004 saying this is applicable to children living in the West Bank. A 2024 UN review said Israel's denial that the convention is applicable in occupied Palestinian territories 'cannot be used to justify its grave and persistent violations of international human rights and humanitarian law'. A two-tier legal system in the occupied West Bank, which sees Israelis tried under civilian law and Palestinians under military law, is one factor that has led to many human rights bodies determining that Palestinians live under 'apartheid' – a claim Israel denies. Like Fatima, both boys are being identified with pseudonyms to avoid repercussions. An emailed list of questions to the Israeli Prison Service was not answered in time for publication. Ibrahim says he was beaten in prison. Photograph: Sally Hayden Ibrahim Ibrahim (16) was studying for his ninth-grade exams when his home was raided and he was arrested. He was charged, locked up for 8½ months and ordered to pay a fine of 3,000 shekels (€750), he said. In detention, he said there were 10 children in each room. He gestured around the office he sat in to say the cell was only about two-fifths of its size. He said there were two sets of bunk beds, three beds high. others slept on mattresses, with a bathroom in one corner. He said the oldest detainee in his cell was 17 and the youngest was 12. The longest sentence being served was 30 years – when that boy turned 18 he was moved to an adult prison. The boys had to kneel in a corner to be 'counted' three times a day – kneeling on a mattress, instead of the hard floor, meant their mattresses could be taken away completely. If they got any details they were asked about wrong, they would be beaten, he said. Twice a week, the room would be searched: 'They go in, break everything, take everything from its place and then leave.' Once, the guards discovered that someone had hidden a watch: there was no usual way for them to know the time. One punishment included three weeks without mattresses and covers for sleeping. 'We used to be punished all the time,' said Ibrahim. This included being punished for things that were nothing to do with them, he said. On October 1st, 2024 when Iran launched ballistic missiles at Israel, 'the prison guards started punishing the detainees, they started spraying the gas spray all over the rooms, they came in, started hitting us, they sent us outside the room'. On the first anniversary of the October 7th attacks, Ibrahim said, 'they started spraying pepper spray all over the rooms until we almost felt like we were suffocating. They went into the rooms, they threw a sound bomb and put handcuffs on us. They put us in the middle of the space outside the prison and let [muzzled] dogs loose on us with their claws.' The detained children could leave the room for one hour a day, and shower for just five minutes – 'if you take longer everybody is punished'. He said the water in the shower gave them skin diseases, like fungal infections. The light in the cell was either very bright or very dark – the impact on Ibrahim's eyes means he needs glasses now, he said. There were three meals – at 10am, 2pm and 5pm, he said – but the food they received was 'only to keep us alive'. 'Uncooked rice twice a week. Chicken with its own blood. Sausages barely cooked ... Most of the time it's undercooked, sometimes expired, sometimes not cooked in the right way. Each person gets a cup of the entire meal, barely.' When asked whether detainees received any education, he raised his hands and asked 'From where?'. He said they could read the Koran and also invented a card game using the covers of spreadable cheese meals. 'But then the administration found out and stopped bringing us the cheese.' During that period, he says the only time he saw his mother was on a screen in court. Sometimes, she would make heart shapes with her fingers, with Israeli guards ordering her to stop, but Ibrahim saw them. 'When I tried to wave on the screen so she could see me, they shut the screen so she couldn't see it ... I spent eight months without hearing my mother's voice.' He still thought of his mother, saying he used information he learned from her to ask guards for specific medicines when child detainees were sick. It reinforced his desire to become a doctor, he said. Mehdi said he was held in a cell with 10 other people, and the amount of food provided was enough for four. Photograph. Sally Hayden Mehdi Mehdi (17) was detained in 2024, when he was 16. He said he was arrested with two others, and spent five days in total between an investigation centre and prison. He said he was put on trial through video conference and his family were forced to pay a fine of 5,000 shekels (€1,250 euros). [ 'They are very weak, they're thin, their minds have stopped': Stranded fathers' anguish over children in Gaza Opens in new window ] 'I know that other prisoners, every time they're taken for trial or back from trial they're always beaten. I was beaten when they took me from home to the prison and the investigation,' he said. In the investigation centre, he said the child detainees were handcuffed by female guards and made to lie on their fronts on the floor. 'They put on music and colourful lights and started dancing over us ... They had their feet on [our backs]. I kept hearing the [Hebrew] word they use to describe us which is 'terrorists'.' He said one of the women was on a video call with another woman at the time. [ An Irish surgeon in Gaza: I have seen tiny bodies ripped apart, children eating grass Opens in new window ] In prison, there were 11 people in his cell, with enough food for four: mostly 'undercooked or expired'. They drank tap water from the bathroom, but it was 'unsanitary'. During his months in detention, Mehdi also said he saw guards force a detainee to kiss an Israeli flag. 'They curse their mothers and their sisters and their honour because they understand how insulting it would be.' He said there were other things that took place that he did not feel comfortable sharing. 'It's five days, some people say 'oh whatever' but it was very difficult ... They try to insult you, to mess with your mentality, with your manhood. They understand what kind of people we are and they try to mess with that.' Francis, the lawyer, said 'sexual harassment has become very widespread in prisons ... It comes in so many ways: strip-search[es] for almost everyone while soldiers are making fun of the person, or hitting them with the magno-meter or plastic stick while doing the search; threatening the detainees to be raped; and we documented rape cases using the baton to push it into the anus of the detainees – mostly Gaza detainees, including children from Gaza.' Last year, a UN commission of inquiry alleged that 'thousands of [Palestinian] child and adult detainees … have ... been subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence.' It said male detainees were 'subjected to rape, as well as attacks on their sexual and reproductive organs and forced to perform humiliating and strenuous acts while naked or stripped as a form of punishment or intimidation to extract information'. Before he was released, Mehdi said he was warned by a prison guard: 'If you do or say anything you will be detained again.' In the aftermath, he felt constantly afraid. 'I saw many traumatic things in a small period of time,' he said, his eyes welling up with tears. 'There's a certain smell to the place, a certain feeling that can only be described if you've had that experience and I hope that no one has that experience.' He said growing up under military occupation is indescribably challenging. 'This is the life I was born into. We came into life and we have never experienced freedom, we came into life under occupation ... We have to cope with it ... Kids are taken to jail without any charges ... The experience was so traumatic that for a while I felt disconnected from reality.' Mehdi wants to continue his education and go to university. He loves reading about history, but other pastimes – such as playing billiards or hanging out in a playground with friends – have become almost impossible because of Israeli raids, patrols and checkpoints around where he lives that stop them from moving around, he said. 'I feel like, from the look of things, things aren't getting better.' Mehdi said he would support any boycott or law from another country that impacts Israel and Israeli settlements. 'I'll be very happy, I will distribute sweets for the people.'
The Journal
7 hours ago
- The Journal
Israeli tactics leave dangerous security vacuum in Gaza which Hamas continues to exploit
Hana Salah Palestinian journalist ISRAEL'S CONTINUING ASSAULTS on Gaza cause daily devastations for the people of Palestine. The starvation of children has become the most visible and derided of those consequences. But last month's killing of 18 Palestinian humanitarian workers, allegedly by Hamas affiliates, also points to a less discussed impact: the dangers of escalating internal lawlessness due to Israel's systematic dismantling of the usual governance mechanisms in Gaza. The Independent Commission for Human Rights says Israeli strikes have systematically dismantled these mechanisms – by targeting police stations, courthouses and prisons. That has left a dangerous security vacuum. Hamas, and other gangs, continue to exploit the gap. On 11 June, at least 18 people working for the US-Israel backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) were killed when the bus they were travelling in was ambushed by gunmen. The incident received little media or public attention in June. What exactly happened on 11 June? According to family interviews and statements, the attackers stopped the bus and accused the workers of collaborating with Israel before unleashing a brutal assault that initially left 11 people dead. About another 17 were injured. Bereaved families now say that at least seven of those 17 were later killed later inside Nasser Hospital, where they had initially been taken for treatment, bringing the death toll to 18. No group has officially claimed responsibility but families of the victims say the attackers were members of the armed Sahem unit, which is affiliated with Hamas. The GHF claimed in a public statement that Hamas gunmen were behind the killings and called for an independent investigation. Hamas, which governs Gaza but has seen its authority fray during the war, has not commented publicly on the incident. However, survivors of the attack say they were targeted because the Sahem unit believed they were members of the Israel-backed Abu Shabab gang. Why were they targeting GHF workers? The GHF, which has controversially, ineffectively and dangerously become the sole provider of food aid in parts of Gaza after Israeli authorities restricted UN agency operations, has faced scrutiny from multiple sides. Some local groups accuse it of serving US interests and consider its operations as 'death traps' because of a lack of proper security protocols. The Palestinian workers were erroneously accused by the Hamas unit of being Abu Shabab gang members because of GHF's links to Israel. 'They were beaten, shot, humiliated' 'What happened was not a mistake. It was a crime,' says local journalist Alaa Al-Helou about the bus ambush. 'They were beaten, shot, humiliated — and then denied medical help in the hospital. And all because of a false accusation.' According to the families' statement, armed men stopped the GHF vehicle before beating the driver and passengers with sticks and rifle butts. They then shot some of them in the legs. Survivors say they were stripped of their belongings and dragged onto the street, where bystanders, incited by the attackers, joined in the assault. 'They forced us off the bus and made us lie on the ground. Then they began beating and shooting us, one by one,' said Younis Abu Shaloof, 18, and a survivor of the attack. 'When the armed men left, people thought we were part of Abu Shabab gang and collaborating with Israel and started hitting us too. The ambulance took us to hospital in Khan Younis.' Yousef was lucky as his family moved him from Nasser hospital in Kahn Younis to another field hospital in Deir Al-Balah, so he survived the second attack by the armed men in the hospital which killed at least seven others injured in the same incident. 'They hit me in the knee, and I passed out,'he recalls. 'When I came to, I saw another man next to me, bleeding from a gunshot wound to the head. 'I smeared some of his blood on my own head and rubbed sand over my face, hoping the gunmen would think I was already dead — so they wouldn't shoot me again and finish me off.' Contracting complications One source, who spoke to The Journal on condition of anonymity, said that the GHF had contracted a bus company for transportation and subcontracted Al-Khuzundar Company to supply the labourers. On 26 May 2025, the Al-Khozendar family — to which the head of the subcontractor company working with the GHF belongs — issued a public statement disowning Mohammad Mohsen Al-Khozendar for his alleged collaboration with a US firm involved in Israeli military projects. The statement, rooted in tribal and social norms in Gaza, condemned any logistical or engineering work that supports such initiatives as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause, and stressed that the company bearing the family name does not represent the family or its values. The transportation company, the source added, claimed it had been communicating with Hamas-affiliated internal security forces to coordinate the workers' movement in the designated humanitarian area. They also had an oral coordination with the Israeli army. Advertisement 'The Israeli army contacted the Palestinian coordinator (sub-contractor) through phone to allow or stop the movement but that doesn't guarantee the bus, or any coordinated movement is protected from strikes, shots, bombing,' the source added. Who knew about the bus movement at that hour? A member of another bereaved family said the bus had been waiting for coordination approval when the attack occurred. 'The bus was waiting for clearance, and the armed men struck nearly an hour after coordination calls began,' the source said. This could suggest that some security sources were already aware of its coordination request.' Youssef recalls the armed men asking them if they were with the Abu Shabab gang which is backed by the Israeli army. 'They asked us if we were working with Abu Shabab, but we denied,' Youssef said. 'I'm too afraid to leave my home now,' said the survivor Youssef. 'I will never work for the American organisation again. Better to die by an Israeli airstrike than be killed as a 'traitor' by our own people.' In the fragmented landscape of Gaza's ongoing war, the Abu Shabab militia has emerged as a controversial player, reportedly collaborating with Israeli forces while launching attacks on Hamas-linked units such as the Sahem Unit. The group is believed to be operating out of Rafah's eastern border and was formed during the current conflict. Its leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, 34, is now at the centre of fierce accusations from the Joint Operations Room of Palestinian Resistance Factions, which has charged him with treason and leading an illegal armed group. A Revolutionary Court has issued a 10-day deadline for his surrender, warning he will otherwise be tried in absentia. Security body seize bus Formally, no group has claimed responsibility. Hamas has not commented. The day after the incident, Abu Shabab denied the images of the killings showed members of its militia, according to EuroNews . But a month on from the attack, the Hamas Interior Ministry issued a statement banning all forms of collaboration or work with the GHF. The bus involved in the attack was seized by a security body in Gaza, according to sources. Witnesses said no one was allowed to approach the vehicle, and individuals who attempted to do so were reportedly beaten. There have been other killings of suspected Israel collaborators during the lawless chaos of the conflict. However, other innocent civilians have also been mistakenly targeted. On 26 September 2024, Islam Hejazi, Gaza Programme Director at the US-based charity Shifa' Palestine, was shot dead by armed men in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. Gunmen in three vehicles opened fire on the car she was travelling in, firing around 90 bullets. Her family said government officials later told them it was a case of mistaken identity — her vehicle had been wrongly suspected of resembling one linked to a wanted man accused of collaboration. Hejazi, a mother of two, was described by Shifa' Palestine as a dedicated humanitarian 'of the highest integrity and professionalism'. The charity said it remained committed to serving Gaza in her memory. Dismantling of public order In a strongly worded statement, the Independent Commission for Human Rights condemned the Khan Younis attack as an extrajudicial killing and a serious breach of international law. It warned of a disturbing rise in armed groups acting outside any official framework, and called for an urgent, independent investigation to restore public trust and uphold the rule of law. A lawyer associated with a human rights organisation in Gaza talked to The Journal on condition of anonymity due to potential risk to his safety, and said his organisation and others are working to document cases of extrajudicial killings and vigilante violence, but stressed the extreme difficulty of collecting accurate data during an ongoing war. 'It is nearly impossible to provide precise numbers at this stage,' he told The Journal. 'The war has made documentation extremely difficult — especially during the period when Gaza was effectively divided between the north and south.' He added that many killings have not been officially investigated by the Public Prosecution or the Ministry of Health, leaving their motives unclear. 'It is often unknown whether these were revenge attacks, personal disputes, or related to allegations of collaboration with the occupation,' he said. 'There are certainly killings, but in many cases, the reasons remain undetermined — particularly under the current conditions of war.' Looting During the 11 June, the Hamas unit targeted workers which the group erroneously identified as Israel collaborators. Meanwhile, the United Nations last week said that 766 aid-seeking Palestinians have been killed in the vicinity of GHF sites – mostly by the IDF. UN human rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told the AFP news agency that these almost 800 victims were killed by Israeli military actions. That death toll has since increased. The collapse of civil order in Gaza has also been highlighted by the UN Protection Cluster, which warned that humanitarian efforts are being severely disrupted. In a recent update, the group said aid delivery is hindered not only by Israeli restrictions and access barriers, but also by growing lawlessness within Gaza, fuelled in part by Israeli strikes on civilian police infrastructure. It noted that the breakdown in law enforcement has led to increased looting and attacks on humanitarian convoys. The closure of the Rafah crossing since May 2024 — aside from limited evacuations of medical cases — has further compounded the crisis. Israeli military operations and an ongoing siege, particularly in northern Gaza since October, have deepened insecurity and worsened conditions for civilians and aid workers alike. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... 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