The member brings up a really important point that what we are talking about is life-saving assistance. Literally, hundreds of thousands of people are on the verge of famine. In fact, recently, as the member indicated, the head of the World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, said that in northern Gaza at least, there is a full-blown famine. This is something that a number of respected human rights organizations and humanitarian organizations, I should say, have been warning about for months. It is why we have been calling for unimpeded humanitarian access. It is why Canada, together with like-minded countries, has embarked on the extraordinary effort of launching airdrops. Northern Gaza was not accessible to trucks and to aid workers, so we had to resort to that to do everything that we can, because that's what international humanitarian law calls on countries to do: to do everything that we can to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches people. We have to make sure people have access to life-saving assistance.
On May 6th, 2024. See this statement in context.