OTTAWA, May 17, 2018 (WAFA) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Wednesday for an immediate independent investigation into Israel’s killing of dozens of Palestinians and wounding of thousands others, including a Canadian physician, in the Gaza Strip two days earlier.
“Canada calls for an immediate independent investigation to thoroughly examine the facts on the ground -- including any incitement, violence, and the excessive use of force,” he said in a statement.
He said his country is “gravely concerned by the violence in the Gaza Strip that has led to a tragic loss of life and injured countless people.”
More than 60 Palestinian civilians were killed and almost 3000 injured on Monday when Israeli forces opened fire at tens of thousands of Palestinians who gathered near the border to protest the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem and to mark 70 years for the Palestinian Nakba, the uprooting and displacement of Palestinians from their homeland when Israel was created in 1948.
Various countries have criticized Israel for using excessive lethal force against unarmed Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“Reported use of excessive force and live ammunition is inexcusable,” he said. “It is imperative we establish the facts of what is happening in Gaza.”
Trudeau made specific reference to a Canadian physician of Palestinian origin who was among the thousands shot and injured by the Israeli forces while attending to the wounded.
“We are appalled that Dr. Tarek Loubani, a Canadian citizen, is among the wounded,” he said.
“We are doing everything we can to assist Dr. Loubani and his family, and to determine how a Canadian citizen came to be injured,” he said.
Loubani identifies himself as an emergency physician at London Health Sciences Centre in Ontario, Canada, and at Shifa Hospital in Gaza.
He said in a blog post that even though he was dressed in clearly identifiable medical garb since most paramedics wore fluorescent high visibility jackets and he wore a hospital green top and bottom “so I could both be identified as medical staff and a physician,” he was nevertheless shot by live ammunition and sustained a moderate injury to his left leg and a minor one to the right leg.
Loubani said that one of his rescuers after he was shot was Musa Abuhassanin, a paramedic, who shot in the thorax and killed while attempting a victim rescue under fire one hour after he had helped in attending to Loubani.
“Musa was one of my rescuers when I was shot,” he wrote. “He had a great laugh and was a good paramedic.”
M.K.
