Canadian foreign minister meets with Palestinian leaders

RAMMALH, Palestinian territories – Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly met with the Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, and with the Palestinian Authority Minister of Foreign Affairs, Riad Malki, on Wednesday

During the two meetings in the West Bank, Minister Joly raised the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including the protection of civilians and the growing threat of hunger and disease for displaced Palestinians.

Echoing the U.S. position, Joly emphasized that a humanitarian ceasefire is urgently needed to stop the violence, bring hostages home and ensure that civilians in Gaza can access humanitarian relief.

The minister and her counterpart, according to Ottawa, agreed on the urgent need to increase and deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinians in Gaza. Minister Joly underscored Canada’s continued efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, including by pushing for increased delivery of aid by all means possible, including through existing land entry points and by sea, the Canadian government statement said.

During the meetings, Minister Joly also discussed what the statement described as ‘the unacceptable sharp increase in extremist settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.’ Joly reaffirmed Canada’s position that the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank endangers the prospects for a two-state solution and highlighted Canada’s continued calls for perpetrators of extremist settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank to be held accountable.

The statement released in Ottwa Thursday said Minister Joly, Palestinian Authority President Abbas, and Minister Malki ‘also discussed the pathway to a sustainable peace through the creation of a Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel.’