Ottawa, May 22 (IANS) Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand has said that she is summoning the Israeli ambassador over Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF)’s warning shots near a diplomatic tour in the West Bank.
Anand confirmed on Wednesday that four of Canada’s personnel were part of the delegation when Israel Defense Forces fired shots, Xinhua news agency reported.
She wrote on her social media account that she spoke with Canada’s Head of Mission in Ramallah earlier on Wednesday and that she was relieved to know Canada’s team is safe.
“I have asked my officials to summon Israel’s Ambassador to convey Canada’s serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability,” Anand wrote.
Israel Defense Forces said that the tour group deviated from its approved route and soldiers fired warning shots with no one injured in the incident.
Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement threatening to impose targeted sanctions on Israel in response to its renewed military offensive in Gaza.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that it’s “totally unacceptable” that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.
The federal government confirmed on Wednesday that four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the IDF fired in their vicinity. Two were Canadians and two were local staff, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office said.
“We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. It’s totally unacceptable, it’s some of many things that are totally unacceptable that’s going on in the region,” Carney said during a news conference in Ottawa.
In a statement the IDF said the tour group, which also included representatives from other countries, “deviated” from the approved route and soldiers fired warning shots to get the delegation to move.
The IDF said it “regrets the inconvenience caused”.
Anand joins other Foreign Ministers condemning the incident.
The Western leaders’ letter followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying his country would control Gaza despite mounting international pressure to lift a blockade on aid supplies that left the enclave on the brink of famine.
Netanyahu condemned the joint statement in a social media post and called it “a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7,” referring to Hamas’s attack against Israel in 2023 which ignited the war in Gaza
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also took aim at Carney’s joint statement.
“The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel,” he posted online on Tuesday.
“Threatening Israel with sanctions and ‘further concrete actions’ while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong.”
Carney said during his Wednesday news conference that he informed US Vice President J.D. Vance of the statement when the two met in Rome over the weekend.
When asked for more details on what Canada is preparing to do if Netanyahu’s government doesn’t change course, Carney offered little detail, saying that the intention of his statement with the UK and France was “clear”.
In a dire warning this week, the United Nations said 14,000 babies are at risk of acute malnutrition if food stationed at the border is not allowed to reach them in Gaza.
According to aid groups, Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Wednesday, but workers have not been able to bring food and supplies to distribution points and to Palestinians in need.
–IANS
int/khz