On the third anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Canadians with ties to the region described continuing anguish tied to the war in Gaza and related losses.
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Three years after Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Canadians with family ties to the Middle East say the conflict has continued to cause deep personal distress, including prolonged separation, interrupted communication and grieving for loved ones.
In Edmonton, Salomy Abusalim said she is struggling to explain to her son why her husband is still in Gaza. She said her husband had been trapped due to “bureaucratic difficulties,” and said she was told he was starving, including a period when he did not have food for months.
Abusalim said the hardest moments come when internet access fails. When she does not hear from her husband, she said she worries he has been harmed and added that she experiences nightmares connected to the violence she has seen.
She said she and their son, Rashid, now have Canadian citizenship, while her husband Saed has been waiting for permanent residency. Abusalim said Saed was set to complete biometrics on Oct. 10, 2023, three days before the Hamas attack ignited the war.
Abusalim said her husband was on a list of Canadians approved to leave Gaza through Egypt in January 2024, but she said Egyptian officials refused to let him enter and later demanded bribes. She said Saed still has an active visa application, but that Ottawa would not issue the document until biometrics are completed, which she said cannot be done in Gaza.
She said her son threatened a hunger strike in frustration over his father’s inability to leave, and that she is now on her fourth day of consuming only water.
In Quebec’s Beauce region, Sylvie Labrecque described the ongoing absence of her son, an aid worker she said was killed in an Israeli airstrike in April 2024. Labrecque said he had been on an aid mission with World Central Kitchen.
She said Israel has drastically restricted the flow of aid into the territory and set restrictions on humanitarian organizations’ work, and she argued the situation made it harder for aid workers to do their jobs safely. Labrecque said Israel struck the convoy multiple times, killing her son along with six other aid workers.
Labrecque said Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand called a decision by an Israeli military prosecutor in August unacceptable and said serious failures were involved. She said Canada could do more to raise the cost of killing aid workers, and she criticized incentives she believes Israel’s leadership has for changing behaviour.
Hassan Haidar of Windsor, Ontario, was also described as being killed in southern Lebanon at a family horse farm, which his family said happened in connection with an Israeli drone. The Israeli military said it could not comment in detail because it could not locate a case file for the incident, which occurred during Israel’s ongoing invasion of Lebanon, which Israel says is aimed at routing Hezbollah.
Haidar’s brother Mohamed said he wants accountability, saying people are allowed to die without consequences and that more Canadians should not have to be killed before action is taken.
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