Canadian politician speaks to Kurdistan 24 about Israel-Hamas conflict
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Canadian politician and parliament member Ziad Aboultaif on Sunday told Kurdistan 24’s correspondent Rahim Rashidi that Canada is desperately attempting to diffuse the situation between Palestinians and Israelis.
“The devastation is big. It happened last week when the first incident happened against Israel, and now it continues to be on the battlefield between Hamas and the Israeli forces,” Aboultaif stated.
He also underlined that Canada's policy has always involved de-escalation when warring parties are involved.
“We always call for peace [and] we are peacekeepers. Sometimes we say that there's not enough peace to maintain anymore [because] everywhere there's a clash between two parties or sometimes two groups within the same country,” the politician added.
Moreover, he pointed out that the world needs peace, and “Canada always likes to approach things from the balance point where we don't like conflicts by nature.”
“We will continue to be the one hopefully working on settling down and maybe bringing people closer together to talk rather than to fight,” the Canadian official concluded.
Hamas launched its ambush attack, known as Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, on Oct. 7 along with thousands of rockets fired towards Israel.
The operation's namesake is a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, where Palestinians allege they have been harassed and assaulted by Israeli security forces, preventing them from performing their prayers.
According to the latest Israel Defense Forces statistics, more than 1,300 Israelis, the overwhelming majority of which are civilians, have been killed since the attack began. Approximately 3,526 have been wounded, and 120 hostages are believed to be still held by Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli ground forces, along with air and drone strikes, have killed more than 2,670 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and more than 9,600 people have been injured, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health.