Mr. Chair, as it is my first opportunity to take the floor on this issue, let me first say that the Green Party stands with all other parties in this place in condemning, unconditionally, unequivocally, Hamas as an organization and its quite horrific assault on innocent Israeli civilians on October 7.
I think we stand with a lot of commonality here. I hope my hon. colleague for Wellington—Halton Hills will forgive me for picking up on what I see as the place of divergence and hope we can find consensus there too. As the Secretary General of the United Nations António Guterres said recently, “Even wars have rules.”
Clearly, Hamas violated all humanitarian norms and international law. That does not mean, as our friend from Edmonton Strathcona said, that we do not say to Israel that as hard as it is in this moment, when we stand in solidarity with them with the goal of eliminating Hamas, that innocent children must not be bombarded indiscriminately in Gaza.
We must help Israel eliminate Hamas. We also must stand up for humanitarian goals and international law, and call for a ceasefire so that we can protect human life in Gaza.