Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a call with a member of Israel’s war cabinet a day after he pleaded for Israel to exercise “maximum restraint” in Gaza, for which he was later rebuked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr. Trudeau spoke on Nov. 15 with Benny Gantz, a minister without a portfolio from the political group National Unity in a coalition with Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud party.
“PM Trudeau conveyed to me his long standing support for The State of Israel and Israel’s right to self-defense,” said Mr. Gantz, who served as defence minister in recent years and previously headed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Mr. Gantz said the two discussed the war in Gaza, the “atrocious” terrorist attack by Hamas, and efforts to release the hostages kept by the group.
“I shared my concern for rising antisemitism globally and I emphasised the cynical abuse by terrorist Hamas of Palestinian citizens as human shields,” Mr. Gantz wrote on social media platform X.
The read-out provided by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) says Mr. Trudeau said Canada supports Israel’s right to self-defence “in accordance with international law,” while “strongly emphasizing the importance of taking all possible measures to protect civilians and to minimize casualties.”
The PMO read-out also mentions Mr. Trudeau strongly condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas, including its “atrocious use of Palestinian civilians as human shields.”
It adds reiterating support for a two-state solution and the right of Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace.
“In the face of the rise of antisemitic events in Canada and around the world, Prime Minister Trudeau and Minister Gantz condemned antisemitism in all its forms and agreed on the need to address it head-on,” adds the read-out.
Mr. Trudeau has maintained support for Israel’s right to self-defence since the Oct. 7 attack inside Israel by Hamas, a group the Canadian government considers a terrorist entity.
But following retaliation by Israel through first air and artillery attacks, and currently with a ground operation inside Gaza, pressure has been mounting for Ottawa to call for a ceasefire.
Mr. Trudeau has called for a “sustained humanitarian pause” and not for a ceasefire per se, but has grown increasingly critical of Israel.
“The world is witnessing this killing of women and children, of babies. This has to stop,” he said on Nov. 14.
“I have been clear that the price of justice cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians. Even wars have rules.”
Mr. Netanyahu responded later that day on social media in a post tagging Mr. Trudeau.
“It is not Israel that is deliberately targeting civilians but Hamas that beheaded, burned and massacred civilians in the worst horrors perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust,” he wrote on X.
“It is Hamas not Israel that should be held accountable for committing a double war crime - targeting civilians while hiding behind civilians.”
Israel has charged that Hamas has been using the cover of hospitals to hide command posts and weapons.
“In the Shifa Hospital, IDF troops found an operational tunnel shaft and a vehicle containing a large number of weapons,” its military said on Nov. 16.
Canada is also currently extracting Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and family members from the Gaza Strip. GAC said in a Nov. 16 statement that 367 of them have crossed into Egypt so far via the Rafah border crossing.
