Prime Minister Mark Carney says it’s “totally unacceptable” that members of the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, which included Canadians, in the West Bank on Wednesday.
The federal government confirmed Wednesday that four members of a Canadian delegation were part of a tour in the city of Jenin when members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fired in their vicinity. Two were Canadians and two were local staff, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand’s office said.
“We expect a full investigation and we expect an immediate explanation of what happened. It’s totally unacceptable, it’s some of many things that are totally unacceptable that’s going on in the region,” Carney said during a news conference in Ottawa.
Prime Minister Carney reacts to IDF firing shots near Canadian diplomats
Anand said earlier that she will be summoning the Israeli ambassador to relay Canada’s “serious concerns.”
“Relieved to know our team is safe,” Anand wrote after speaking with Canada’s head of mission in Ramallah.
“I have asked my officials to summon Israel’s ambassador to convey Canada’s serious concerns. We expect a full investigation and accountability.”
Video of the incident, shot by the Agence France-Presse news agency, shows members of the delegation being pulled away by security as gun shots are heard in the background.
In a statement the IDF said the tour group, which also included representatives from other countries, “deviated” from the approved route and soldiers fired warning shots to get the delegation to move.
The IDF said it “regrets the inconvenience.”
Anand joins other foreign ministers condemning the incident.
The situation is “unheard of,” said Jon Allen, a former Canadian ambassador to Israel.
“The fact that you had a group of diplomats who were not properly protected by the IDF or other security forces while they were in the West Bank… is unconscionable,” Allen told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics.
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Earlier this week, Carney joined British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron in threatening to impose sanctions on Israel in response to its “denial of essential humanitarian assistance” in Gaza.
“The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable,” said the three leaders in a statement.
“If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.”
They also said they opposed “any attempt” to expand Israeli settlement in the West Bank — this after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would control Gaza despite mounting international pressure to lift a blockade on aid supplies that left the enclave on the brink of famine.
Netanyahu condemned the joint statement in a social media post and called it “a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7,” referring to Hamas’s attack against Israel in 2023 which ignited the war in Gaza.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also took aim at Carney’s joint statement.
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“The Hamas terrorists have just thanked Mark Carney for his recent statement on Israel,” he posted online Tuesday.
“Threatening Israel with sanctions and ‘further concrete actions’ while a terrorist group on their borders holds their citizens hostage and refuses to stop attacking Israel is wrong.”
Carney said during his Wednesday news conference that he informed U.S. Vice President JD Vance of the statement when the two met in Rome over the weekend.
The U.K. moved first on the threat in the joint statement. U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Tuesday the British government is suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and has ordered new sanctions targeting West Bank settlements.
Canada and France have not made similar moves at this point. When asked Wednesday for more details on what Canada is preparing to do if Netanyahu’s government doesn’t change course, Carney offered little detail, saying that the intention of his statement with the U.K. and France was “clear.”
Thomas Juneau, an associate professor of political science at the University of Ottawa, says even if the three countries follow through on the sanctions, they would do little to deter Netanyahu’s government.
“There is only one international actor that could really have an impact on Israel’s decision making calculus and that’s the U.S.,” Juneau told Power & Politics.
“France and the U.K. are not negligible as international actors, they can have a bit of an influence — Canada, even less than them. But fundamentally as long as the U.S. does not put significant pressure on Israel to change course… then I don’t think we’re going to see a significant shift in Israel’s actions.
In a dire warning this week, the United Nations said 14,000 babies are at risk of acute malnutrition if food stationed at the border is not allowed to reach them in Gaza.
According to aid groups, Israel began allowing dozens of humanitarian trucks into Gaza on Wednesday. Workers initially raised concerns that the trucks have not been able to bring food and supplies to distribution points and to Palestinians in need.
A UN official later told The Associated Press that more than a dozen trucks that left the crossing area arrived at warehouses in central Gaza on Wednesday night. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
