Palestinian children walk to school past the rubble of a destroyed building as the academic year begins in Bureij in the central Gaza Strip on Saturday.EYAD BABA/AFP/Getty Images
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada is pledging $100-million in new aid for Palestinians and offering to expand an RCMP training mission of local police in the West Bank to include Gaza, when conditions allow.
Speaking on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Carney said Canada remains focused on helping create a Palestinian country that could live in peace alongside Israel.
He said the two-state solution motivated Canada to recognize the State of Palestine a year ago with “preconditions” for the Palestinian Authority to reform its governance.
“A year on, the prospect of a two-state solution remains distant,” Mr. Carney said at an event with his French, British and Saudi Arabian counterpart.
“The long-held international consensus for a two-state solution means nothing – unless these conditions change.”
He told reporters earlier that Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing “immense human suffering” while Israelis face “existential threats from Hamas and from Iran and its proxies.”
At the leaders’ event, Mr. Carney spoke of the toll of the conflict on Palestinians.
“Gaza is now home to the greatest number of child amputees in modern history. Its hospitals, schools, and maternal clinics have all been destroyed and none have been rebuilt,” he said.
Mr. Carney said that carnage is why Canada is announcing $80-million in new humanitarian aid. Another $20-million will go to development funding for security initiatives, including top-up funding for a multiyear project to train Palestinian police.
That currently involves the RCMP training Palestinian police officers in the West Bank, and Mr. Carney announced Canada is opening to doing the same in the Gaza Strip if it’s safe enough.
“We will continue to lead with others in training the Palestinian Authority’s security forces through Operation Proteus, and we stand ready to extend that support to Gaza when conditions permit,” he said at the leaders’ event.
Ottawa has pledged more than $600-million in aid for Palestinian civilians since the Israel-Gaza war started in October 2023.
New documents tabled in Parliament this week list the damage done to dozens of Canadian-funded aid projects by Israel’s military and settlers.
Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, a group that advocates for Palestinians, said the new funding “misses the core of the problem” with Israel destroying aid projects in the occupied territories.
“It feels deeply unserious for Canada to champion its humanitarian projects for Palestinians when it won’t even hold Israel accountable for bombing or demolishing those very same initiatives,” wrote the group’s vice-president Michael Bueckert.