OTTAWA - Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand stated on Tuesday that a famine is developing in Gaza, exacerbated by new Israeli restrictions. Her remarks followed a condemnation from her department regarding the killing of several journalists in the region. "The humanitarian suffering in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels," Anand posted on social media. She referenced a joint statement from foreign ministers across Europe, Asia, and Australia, which warned that Israel's restrictions on international aid groups would worsen the situation.

Israel has denied claims of widespread starvation in Gaza, asserting that it maintains strict controls over aid entering the territory and its distribution. Recently, a coalition of UN organizations and partners operating in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza called for a halt to Israeli policies set to take effect in September. These policies would require aid organizations to share sensitive personal information about their Palestinian employees or face termination. The statement highlighted that those not registered under the new system would be barred from sending essential aid, including food, medicine, and hygiene products, to Gaza.

Anand and her counterparts are urging Israel to authorize all international NGO aid shipments and to facilitate the operation of essential humanitarian actors. They are also calling for the use of all possible routes to deliver food, water, and medicine to Gaza. Israel has attributed the failure to distribute aid from hundreds of trucks to the UN, while the UN claims that Israel's lengthy inspection process and dangerous delivery routes hinder aid distribution.

Earlier this spring, Israel halted all food shipments to Gaza for nearly three months before implementing a new aid distribution system involving U.S. contractors. Reports indicate that hundreds of individuals have been shot by Israeli troops while attempting to access food from this new program. A statement from the foreign ministers emphasized that "humanitarian space must be protected, and aid should never be politicized." They warned that restrictive registration requirements could force essential international NGOs to leave the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), worsening the humanitarian crisis.

The joint statement from foreign ministers came shortly after Canada condemned the Israeli military's targeted killing of Al Jazeera journalists, including prominent reporter Anas Al-Sharif. Global Affairs Canada stated, "Canada condemns the killing of Al Jazeera journalists in Gaza. Journalists are civilians — targeting them is unacceptable. We call for full accountability and for the protection of media everywhere."

Al-Sharif was killed in a Sunday airstrike, which press advocates claim followed an Israeli smear campaign against him after he publicly expressed concern over starvation in Gaza. The Israeli military has previously stated that it targets individuals it identifies as Hamas militants posing as journalists. Observers have noted that this conflict is one of the deadliest for journalists in modern history.

Israel restricts foreign journalists from entering Gaza unless they are embedded with the military, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for more foreign reporters to participate in these embeds. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that at least 192 journalists have been killed since the onset of the conflict in Gaza, describing the recent deaths as retribution against those documenting the war.

Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, stated that the killings are part of a deliberate strategy by Israel to suppress the truth and obstruct the documentation of international crimes. Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation into the killings of Palestinian journalists, noting that they have continued to report from the front lines despite facing death threats and immense grief.

In a video released on July 24, an Israeli army spokesperson accused Al Jazeera and Al-Sharif of being affiliated with Hamas. Both Al-Sharif and Al Jazeera have dismissed these allegations as baseless. Janina Dill, a global security professor at the University of Oxford, remarked that even disseminating pro-Hamas propaganda does not justify targeted killings under international humanitarian law.

Al Jazeera remains one of the few media outlets with a significant presence in Gaza, documenting the daily struggles amid airstrikes and food shortages. Israel has blocked Al Jazeera from broadcasting in Gaza and previously raided the network's offices in the occupied West Bank. In a social media post intended for release in the event of his death, Al-Sharif expressed his commitment to reporting the truth, stating, "I never hesitated for a single day to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification." During a broadcast, he emotionally described the dire situation, saying, "I am talking about the slow death of those people."