Foreign Affairs committee  I would quickly add that we are working with all our regional partners on both of those fronts, whether it's helping Canadians to exit Gaza or addressing the cases of our two missing Canadians. We are intensively engaging, both in capitals and on the ground, with all countries that are playing an important role in this, such as Israel, obviously, and the U.S., and we are also discussing this with regional partners such as Qatar.

Foreign Affairs committee  —so, with regard to that first piece, the Government of Canada has taken responsibility for that. In this case, that was done through the Canadian Armed Forces. Individuals were evacuated to Athens. They are required to pay their onward travel to Canada and also to coordinate their lodging.

Foreign Affairs committee  What I would say to that, Mr. Chair, is that our policy, as applied to conflict crisis scenarios, has been very consistent. In the case of Sudan, we took people to Nairobi, at which point, for onward travel, they were required to support that travel. Of course, we have funding that's available should anyone require a loan to be able to do that.

Foreign Affairs committee  In terms of our policy on evacuations, when we're dealing with a crisis situation, our objective is to get people to a safe country—

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I'll take that question. We're very concerned about the security situation in the West Bank. We are watching it very carefully. This is partially why we are so closely networked with our Five Eyes partners there, and with the UN and with others to understand what's going on and where there are risks.

Foreign Affairs committee  At this time, obviously we're very focused on getting information out to Canadians who are in Lebanon as well as to permanent residents and their family members. There are a good number of them. Our best advice, of course, is always to follow our travel advice, which is telling people to leave—

Foreign Affairs committee  For Lebanon, I can let you know that we have 16,700 Canadians who are registered on our ROCA, the registration of Canadians abroad, so—

Foreign Affairs committee  We moved quickly on all fronts in this as the conflict escalated. We watched our numbers increase in Israel in terms of those who required assistance, and we moved quickly to address that. We also moved very quickly to be able to support people in the West Bank and Gaza. In the case of the West Bank, it took a bit longer because it was a more complex environment for us to be able to support people.

Foreign Affairs committee  There are multiple complications, in the sense of.... Ramallah is one part of the West Bank, and certainly we moved quickly. The first bus of Canadians and also some Australians out of Ramallah happened for those were individuals who were in that area because we were able to move really quickly.

Foreign Affairs committee  In Ramallah, yes, we have our team on the ground. In Rafah, we do not have officials there. The Egyptian authorities are not permitting us to take officials there right now. We also, of course, have to assess the security situation, so we are in active discussions right now about where we will be collecting our Canada-entitled persons when that border opens.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you for the question. We have also recognized over the past week, in our calls to individuals in both the West Bank and Gaza, that the telecom situation has been up and down. Sometimes we're able to contact them and sometimes we're not. We've been using email and phone and all methods of communication.

Foreign Affairs committee  From the perspective of assisting Canadians—and I'll turn it to my colleague on the broader diplomat piece—we have a team in Ramallah, and they are working hard to assist the departure of Canadians, permanent residents and their family members. We have assisted with departures from across the West Bank.

Foreign Affairs committee  I don't have a precise number for you right now, unfortunately, but I would say with confidence that the majority of those inquiries have been from Israel. We have smaller numbers from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but they're nevertheless significant. We have fewer inquiries from Lebanon, though we do see our registration of Canadians in Lebanon going up slightly.

Foreign Affairs committee  I think in part it's the numbers, initially. I think we have fewer Canadians, permanent residents and family members in the West Bank and Gaza who are seeking help. I would say that right now we know this group very well. It's a smaller group. We've been reaching out directly to them by phone and by email to stay in touch and to understand what assistance they require from us.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I will be speaking to you today about the consular services being provided to Canadians affected by this crisis. Since the onset of the crisis, our missions on the ground in Tel Aviv and Ramallah, and more widely throughout the region, have been providing consular services to Canadians.