Thank you, Chair.
The first issue is getting out of Gaza. The second issue is that even people who got out of Gaza and are in Egypt have been having lots of challenges in getting all of their documentation to come to Canada.
We're hearing more and more stories. A few weeks ago, I was at one of the local mosques in my riding, where I heard that one of my constituents lost his father in a bomb blast. One week after that, he lost his brother, wife and three children. A day after that, he lost his youngest brother and his wife. These are the real stories of the people. This is what we have to hear every day.
As we have seen, the program we introduced in January of this year has not been as successful as we wanted it to be. There is a need to study what challenges have been happening and why we have not been able to get people out of Gaza. It is very important that we hear from families that have been trying to get their extended family out. We should also hear from some of the families that have been able to make it here so they can tell us what exactly the situation is like on the ground.
On Tuesday, HCI and Islamic Relief Canada organized a round table where they brought in some families. It happened at the Wellington Building in one of the committee rooms. There were two families that talked about the challenges they had to face to get out of Gaza.
One man talked about the challenges he had to face and the treatment they are getting compared to those who fled the war in Ukraine. People feel—and many families have been talking about it—that those who came from Ukraine had work permits and initial money to support them, whereas the people who came from Gaza or are coming have no support at all.
There are differences. I know, because of the war in Ukraine, that we were able to do biometrics in Ukraine. With Ukraine, we were able to get people out of other countries. They allowed Ukrainians to transit to a safe third country, like Canada. However, there is a feeling within the community that there is differential treatment for Palestinians when they compare the treatment they are getting with that of the people who came from Ukraine.
The situation in Gaza is beyond a tragedy. A genocide is happening there. There needs to be a ceasefire. Hostages and political prisoners must be released back to their loved ones, and humanitarian aid is badly needed. People are starving. Millions of people in Gaza have been displaced. The majority of the houses in Gaza are under rubble.
Have a look at the reports, like the one from Amnesty International, which just came out last week. They talk about the genocide happening in Gaza. One of my colleagues came back from Cairo and was telling me the stories he heard from the people of Gaza. So many kids have lost their legs and arms, and we really cannot imagine the mental health state they are going through.
As a mother, it has been very difficult for me watching on social media the pictures that have been coming. There are no schools. The hospitals in Gaza have been destroyed by the bombings of the Israeli government. These are war crimes. Every war has rules. Under the rules of law, civilians are protected everywhere, but this is not what we have seen in Gaza in the last many months, the last over 400 days.
I had the opportunity, along with one of my colleagues, MP Ali, in January to visit the West Bank in East Jerusalem. It was a 19-member delegation. We heard stories from the Palestinian people in the West Bank, and we saw the suffering the Palestinian people are going through there. We were not able to get to Gaza, but the suffering of the Palestinian people is beyond anyone's imagination.
In Gaza—