Palestinian families in Canada are pleading with the government and beyond to do more in the on-going hunger crisis in Gaza. CTV\u2019s Kamil Karamali reports. <\/p>\n
Najah Ashour watches a video of her cousin, Enaia Shurrab, in Gaza City \u2014 sobbing over the lifeless body of her five-month-old son \u2014 who she says died from starvation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very sad,\u201d Ashour whispers, sitting in her family\u2019s apartment in Burlington, Ont. \u201cShe call[ed] me, \u2018Please send me anything, can you buy milk for my baby?\u2019 It broke my heart every minute. I tried to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she couldn\u2019t get food to the Gaza Strip fast enough. Within days of that desperate phone call, her cousin\u2019s infant son had died.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe had \u2026 two babies,\u201d Ashour says. Now, one of them [is] dead.”<\/p>\n
Ashour says her entire extended family is in Gaza, including aunts, uncles and cousins. All of them are starving, only having one meal a day in the evening, which she says is just a little bit of bread and water in the evening.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very, very worried about them, they keep calling me. All of my cousins, they need help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Surviving on bread and water<\/p>\n
Her husband, Ahmed Ashour, has his brother and his family in Gaza, which includes three children. He says they barely have enough bread and water between them to keep them alive for much longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no food,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s just bread and water. They mix the water with sugar and salt to keep them awake. Because if they don\u2019t take water with salt or sugar, they may (pass) out.<\/b>“<\/p>\n
He hasn\u2019t heard from them in the past few days \u2014 and doesn\u2019t know if they\u2019re getting enough to eat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what I should do or where I should go. I feel helpless,\u201d said Ahmed. \u201cI don\u2019t know right now if they are OK or not. I just pray for them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahmed says that although there is some food available, it is unaffordable \u2014 and he isn\u2019t able to get his family the money they need to afford basic necessities.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne kilogram of flour is more than 70 U.S. dollars \u2014 it is 100 Canadian dollars,” said Ahmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe price of one piece of tomato is 70 shekels \u2014 it is 70 U.S. dollars. So if you\u2019re going to buy this, how many people are going to eat this? It is nothing,” added Ahmed. \u201cEven a kilogram of sugar or a kilogram of salt is 500 shekels \u2014 it\u2019s 150 U.S. dollars.”<\/p>\n
Responsibility for delivering aid<\/p>\n
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, earlier this week, condemned \u201cthe Israeli government\u2019s failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza\u201d \u2014 calling it \u201ca violation of international law\u201d and saying Israel\u2019s control of aid distribution \u201cmust be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nCanada condemns the Israeli government\u2019s failure to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s control of aid distribution must be replaced by comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations. Many of these are\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2014 Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) July 25, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Israel\u2019s ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed<\/a>, responded by saying \u201cIsrael has neither interfered with nor blocked any aid, including Canadian-funded assistance,\u201d claiming that \u201cthe Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has made great strides in improving the efficiency and impact of the aid delivery program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Israel took control of aid distribution in Gaza \u2014 which it said was to prevent Hamas from stealing food and using it for profit \u2014 more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops while trying to access aid at distribution points. <\/p>\n
The U.N. food agency accused Israel of using tanks, snipers and other weapons to fire on a crowd of starving Palestinians. Israel maintains its soldiers were firing warning shots \u201cto remove an immediate threat,\u201d and questioned the death toll.<\/p>\n
Israel has also claimed the tonnes of aid sitting outside \u2014 and some of it even inside the Gaza border \u2014 are waiting to be distributed by United Nations aid groups, blaming them for food not reaching hungry and malnourished Palestinians.<\/p>\n
But the U.N. has said that Israel has made the process of distributing aid difficult, filling it with bureaucracy and not guaranteeing safety to aid workers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is missing right now is safe, sustained access. Aid workers face constant danger, crossings are unreliable, and critical items are routinely blocked,\u201d said Stephanie Tremblay, associate spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, on Friday from the United Nations headquarters in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs access constraints continue \u2014 yesterday, out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza, four were outright denied, with another three impeded. One was postponed, and two others had to be cancelled by the organizers,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Israel says aid airdrops resumed Saturday<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said this week it will resume airdrop aid into the enclave on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organizations,\u201d the military said in a statement \u2014 while adding it will establish humanitarian corridors for United Nations convoys.<\/p>\n
All the while, the Ashour family is waiting to hear from their loved ones \u2014 not interested in playing politics \u2014 but instead just wishing for food to reach them before it\u2019s too late. They\u2019ve started a GoFundMe page<\/a> to help their family in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just want to live in peace. They just want to save their children, their lives,\u201d said Najah Ashour. \u201cThey just want to live.\u201d<\/p>\n