Israeli envoy pushes back as Ottawa calls out ‘disturbing’ food restrictions on Gaza

OTTAWA — The MP overseeing Canada’s foreign aid is calling on Israel to stop restricting the flow of food aid to the Gaza Strip — while Israel’s ambassador is pushing back on Ottawa’s suggestion that his country is violating humanitarian law.

“Gaza is officially the hungriest place on earth. This is profoundly disturbing,” Randeep Sarai, the secretary of state for international development, posted Monday on the platform X.

The Israeli government has set up an agency to distribute aid in four locations in Gaza, effectively shutting down hundreds of sites that had been operated by international agencies across the territory.

Israel says this was necessary in order to stop aid from reaching Hamas, but the World Food Programme says aid diversion was not happening to any significant degree.

The new system, operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, does not operate in northern areas of Gaza that Israeli ministers have said should be cleared of Palestinians.

The foundation, which is backed by Israel and the U.S., insists it has successfully distributed aid and has disputed reports of near-daily shootings at or near its distribution sites.

The United Nations has rejected the new system, saying it doesn’t address Gaza’s mounting hunger crisis and allows Israel to use aid as a weapon.

Aid groups have described chaotic scenes of violence as crowds of desperate Palestinians rush aid distribution centres while Israeli soldiers fire shots nearby.

Aid groups like Oxfam say it sets a dangerous precedent to have a warring party control who receives aid, instead of neutral organizations subject to global scrutiny.

“We urge the Government of Israel to immediately restore aid flow into Gaza and allow the UN and humanitarian organizations to work independently to provide urgent, life-saving aid to civilians,” Sarai wrote Monday.

He repeated the federal government’s call for a ceasefire and for Hamas to release all hostages.

“Civilians must be protected and treated with dignity — humanitarian law must be upheld,” Sarai wrote.

In a social media post, Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed said aid is still being distributed and accused United Nations agencies of choosing to “cherry pick the facts to paint an alternative version of reality and demonize Israel.”

He repeated the claim that the “UN feeds Hamas” and insisted the new aid distribution system is working better than the one previously run by international organizations — a view that virtually no western country other than the U.S. seems to share.

“In a desperate effort to remain relevant, (UN agencies) lambaste the best efforts of Israel and its partners to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilian population,” Moed wrote.

Palestinian health officials and witnesses said Israeli forces fired on people Tuesday as they headed toward an aid distribution centre, killing at least 27. The Israeli army said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots.

Israel bars foreign journalists from entering Gaza without being accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation refused to say Monday whether it receives any public or private funds from Canada.

“GHF is a registered non-profit … like most non-profits, we don’t disclose our donors,” the agency wrote in an email which did not identify any spokesperson.

The federal Liberals have been taking heat from human rights groups for not following through on a threat last month to impose targeted sanctions on Israel if the situation worsens in the Palestinian territories.

Since then, international organizations have repeatedly warned of a risk of famine in Gaza, while the Israel government has said it will expand settlements in the West Bank.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press