Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says she’ll relay Canada’s “serious concerns” to Israel’s ambassador after members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.
In a social media post the new minister confirmed four Canadian personnel were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fired in their vicinity. Anand’s office later that two were Canadian and two were local staff.
“Relieved to know our team is safe,” Anand wrote after speaking with Canada’s head of mission in Ramallah.
“I have asked my officials to summon Israel’s ambassador to convey Canada’s serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability.”
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 situation is “unheard of,” said Jon Allen, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel.
“The fact that you had a group of diplomats who were not properly protected by the IDF or other security forces while they were in the West Bank… is unconscionable,” Allen told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Mark Carney joined British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron in threatening to impose sanctions on Israel in response to its “denial of essential humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.
“The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” said the three leaders.
The joint statement also said the leaders opposed “any attempt” to expand Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
Netanyahu condemns Carney and other leaders
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 comments.
“The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel,” he posted online 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.”
Thomas Juneau, an associate professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, says even if the three countries follow through on the sanctions, they would do little to deter Netanyahu’s government.
“There is only one international actor that could really have an impact on Israel’s decision making calculus and that’s the U.S.,” Juneau told Power & Politics.
“France and the U.K. are not negligible as international actors, they can have a bit of an influence — Canada, even less than them. But fundamentally as long as the U.S. does not put significant pressure on Israel to change course… then I don’t think we’re going to see a significant shift in Israel’s actions.
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.
