Alongside a few hundred other humanitarian workers from several countries, three Quebecers will set sail in a few days to try to transport some 5,500 tonnes of basic necessities to the Palestinians – food, surgical and childbirth kits, etc. – to Gaza. . But if this happens like the other Freedom Flotillas launched in recent years towards the occupied territories, the three ships of the expedition have little chance of success.
Supported in particular by Amnesty International Canada francophone, Nimâ Machouf, epidemiologist, Dr Gligor Delev, emergency doctor, and Jean-Pierre Roy Valdebenito, nurse, will leave these days for Turkey, from where they will board the ships.
“We are not armed, we are going to bring humanitarian equipment,” insisted Nimâ Machouf on Tuesday at a press conference.
If humanitarian personnel will occupy two of the three boats, she explains, it is to ensure that the humanitarian aid contained in the third arrives safely. On site, assures Nimâ Machouf, humanitarian organizations are ready to ensure the distribution of foodstuffs.
We will do everything we can to ensure that help is delivered. If it doesn’t happen, it will be because Israel stopped us.
Nimâ Machouf
Flotillas in support of Palestine have been organized since 2008. The Israeli authorities do not authorize them, so the boats, intercepted and hijacked, do not reach the Gaza Strip.
In addition to the more than 30,000 dead and thousands injured in the war between Israel and Hamas so far, according to the UN, “more than two million people in Gaza are in danger of death as the famine and malnutrition are spreading,” denounces Nimâ Machouf. “Yet Canada is failing to exert significant pressure on Israel to end the siege and allow the entry of humanitarian aid. »
At the moment, in Gaza, a very large number of amputations have to be carried out, “often on children, due to the lack of appropriate equipment to carry out less drastic surgeries”, denounced the Dr Ghassan Boubez, Quebec orthopedic surgeon of Palestinian origin.
Nimâ Machouf says she is counting on the Canadian government, as well as the media who will follow the expedition, to ensure its safety and success.
Destruction in Gaza
Ellen Gabriel, well known for her indigenous activism for several years, supports the expedition. In front of the media, she recalled that we should “feed the children, not kill them”.
“I can’t imagine what it must be like in Gaza, to think that no one cares about them,” she said, adding that we should be investing “in peace , in our youth” rather than in war.
Isabelle Langlois, executive director of Amnesty International Canada francophone, recalled that war crimes were committed by Hamas on October 7.
These war crimes do not allow the Israeli government to “commit them in turn”.
“There is a problem with our system of international democracy,” she argued. Canada is being asked to resume the leadership role it has played in the past. »
The DD Sophie Zhang, a family doctor and co-founder of the group Médecins du Québec contre le genocide in Gaza, said that after the publication of a letter of support to the Palestinians in The Press610 doctors signed the declaration.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
The DD Sophie Zhang, family doctor and co-founder of the group Médecins du Québec against the genocide in Gaza
“Rather than a ceasefire, as voted by the UN Security Council, two weeks ago Israel carried out the total destruction of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest health establishment from Gaza. Before the eyes of the whole world, thousands of Palestinians were killed or injured there, including doctors and health workers,” she said.
“Rather than free passage for the delivery of humanitarian aid, Israel continues to target humanitarian vehicles, including that of World Central Kitchen, where a 33-year-old Quebecer, Jacob Flickinger, was on a mission to Gaza. »
Saturday, at 1 p.m. on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, this group of doctors is organizing a type demonstration die-in to demand, they mention in a press release, “the cessation of targeted attacks on health infrastructure and personnel”, “the end of the illegal blockade, which prevents the entry of medical supplies, medicines and healthcare equipment” and “immediate access to drinking water and free passage for the delivery of food and humanitarian aid”.
Tuesday’s press conference, held outside on rue Chabanel, in Montreal, was heavily disrupted by some passers-by who shouted to bury what the organizers of the event were saying in front of the media, alleging that they were lying.
reference: www.lapresse.ca