OTTAWA — At least two Canadians have died in the escalating violence in Lebanon, as Israeli strikes kill Hezbollah militants along with civilians and children.
Global Affairs Canada said Wednesday it is aware of the deaths of two Canadian citizens in Lebanon while another has reached out for help with injuries.
The department said it's in contact with the grieving family and won't disclose more detail due to privacy considerations.
Liberal MP Fayçal El-Khoury was born in Lebanon and says Canada needs to push its peer countries more to stop a cycle of violence in the Middle East, which he warned is escalating.
"It might lead to a regional war and perhaps to an international war, and everyone will pay the price," he told reporters Wednesday morning.
"I appeal on our government to stand for Canadian values, for human rights, to do everything in its possible means," he said
El-Khoury said his cousin who works as an ophthalmologist in Beirut recounted shocking amounts of bodily trauma in a recent explosion, saying that he had to remove more eyes in one day than over the course of his 25-year career.
The Montreal-area MP says the Port of Beirut must be protected from attacks, as it might be the only means of evacuating thousands of Canadians if that is required.
In 2006, Canada voluntarily evacuated 14,370 people from Lebanon, according to a Senate report following the Israel-Hezbollah war. That effort involved 34 ship departures from Beirut and the southern port of Tyre.
An Israeli airstrike destroyed runways at the Beirut airport, while land routes to neighbouring countries were not considered safe. The evacuation cost Canada $94 million.
Global Affairs Canada said evacuations are "an option of last resort" when there is no commercial means out of the country.
"There is never a guarantee the Canadian government will evacuate Canadians in a crisis situation. Canadians should not rely on the government of Canada for assisted departure or evacuation," the department said in a statement.
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet put the advice more directly.
"They are telling Canadians in Lebanon to get the hell out of there. That's what they should do," he said.
El-Khoury said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will make a statement Wednesday about the situation in Lebanon. Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday that both Israel and Hezbollah must de-escalate.
Last Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said close to 45,000 Canadians are in Lebanon. She has been urging them for months to leave while commercial flights are still available.
Global Affairs Canada said its emergency response team has had an increase in requests for help this past weekend from Lebanon as people seek help securing flights and travel documents.
"Contingency plans are in place in Lebanon to respond should the situation deteriorate further," the department said in a statement. "We do not discuss operational details of our missions abroad out of security considerations."
Israel insists it is trying to convince Hezbollah to stop firing rockets at northern Israel, but Canada's ambassador to the United Nations, Bob Rae, said Monday that Israel must think "more consequentially about what's happening, less impulsively."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press