Ottawa Condemns Israeli Bombing for Civilian Casualty as Ambassador Retorts That Terrorists Were Targeted

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly rises during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on June 3, 2024. The Canadian Press/Spencer Colby

The Canadian government is condemning an Israeli airstrike that hit a mosque in a school compound in Gaza on Aug. 10. Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says the bombing caused civilian casualties. The Israeli Ambassador to Canada retorts that terrorists were the ones being targeted in the strike.

Hours after the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched the airstrike early Saturday, Joly called for an “immediate ceasefire” and the “release of hostages” in a post on X.

“Canada condemns the Israeli strike that killed Palestinian civilians sheltering at a school in Gaza, including children,” she wrote on the evening of Aug. 10.

“Israel must uphold international humanitarian law. Hamas must stop putting civilian lives in danger, ” she added.

Global Affairs Canada posted the minister’s exact comment on its X account minutes later.

Israel’s Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed responded to Joly and Global Affairs Canada shortly after the comment was posted on the social media platform.

“Israel goes to great lengths to abide by international law,” he said in his post on X.

In the same post, the envoy shared a joint statement by the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency (ISA) announcing that the Israeli forces targeted terrorists running operations at a mosque in a school compound in Gaza, referring to the location Hamas has denied using as a command centre.

“Today (Saturday), the IDF and ISA struck terrorists operating in a Hamas command and control center, which was embedded inside a mosque in the Al-Taba’een school compound,” the statement said.

“Following an intelligence investigation, it can be confirmed at this time that at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated.”

Reports by Hamas

According to Gaza’s Civil Emergency Service, a Hamas-run agency, around 100 people were killed in the airstrike. Several Arab states, Turkey, Britain, the United States, and the European Union’s foreign policy chief in turn have expressed their condemnation of the attack.

In a televised press conference on Aug. 10, Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza’s Civil Defence, said the school compound was attacked while its occupants were performing dawn prayers. He said casualties included 11 children.

Fadel Naeem, director of the al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, told The Associated Press in an interview on Aug. 10 that his hospital received 70 bodies along with the body parts of at least 10 others. Gaza’s Health Ministry said another 47 people were wounded.

‘Unverified’

The IDF and ISA disputed the toll claimed by Hamas officials.

“The strike was carried out using three precise munitions, which, according to professional analysis, can not cause the amount of damage that is being reported by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza. Furthermore, no severe damage was caused to the compound where the terrorists were situated,” they said in their statement.

IDF spokesperson RAdm. Daniel Hagari followed up with a video statement on the same day, saying the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza published an “unverified casualty count, which was then shared around the world.”

“These figures do not distinguish between combatants and non combatants, and they do not match the information held by the IDFs,” he said.

The statement by the IDF and ISA said the school compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, was used by terrorists as a site to “advance and carry out attacks against IDF soldiers and the State of Israel from inside the compound.”

Ambassador Moed’s post included a link that directs his visitors to view aerial photos published by the IDF of the school’s compound before and after the strike. He also included a link to a video showing an aerial view of the compound after the strike. The 11-second video, with a caption that says, “Aerial view of the Al-Taba'een Compound following the precise strike on terrorists inside,” shows that the compound appears intact.

The IDF and ISA say Hamas “systematically violates international law and operates from within civilian infrastructure and shelters, brutally exploiting the civilian population and institutions as human shields for their terror activities.”

In response to an Epoch Times request for comment, a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson said “we have nothing further to add” to Joly’s comment that was posted on X.

Reuters and The Associated Press contribute to this report.