'10 hours a day on the phone': Hamilton-area residents say efforts to get aid to Gaza have been all consuming

Friday afternoon prayers at the Hamilton Mountain Masjid, or mosque,draws hundreds of community members. On a recent Friday in December,inthe large room on the main floor,men stoodin rowswhile an imam ledthe prayer.

Javid Mirza, president of the Muslim Association of Hamilton (MAH), wentto the front to make announcements. One of them was about afundraiserfor water treatment equipment in Gazahe is helping to organize at the mosque on Dec. 22at 7 p.m.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the United Nations said this weekmore than halfa million people are starving, has been all consuming for many in the local Muslim community,Mirzatold CBC Hamilton at the mosque.

About 40 per cent of the HamiltonMuslim community is Arab, Mirzasaid, and of that group, about half are Palestinian and a quarter from the Gaza Strip. Mirza said many have lost people they lovein the region and have been involved in letter writing to politicians in support of a ceasefire.Hundreds of deaths in Gaza have local connections, Mirza said.

Around 20,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, according to Gaza'sHamas-run Health Ministry, since Oct. 7.ThatdayHamasmilitantsattacked Israel,killing 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians,and taking around 240 peoplehostage. Since then, about 1.9 millionPalestinianshave been displaced as Israel continues its air and ground war on Gaza.

Fundraisersfor both Israelis and Palestinians have been held locally. The Hamilton Jewish Federation has an ongoing "Israel emergency" campaign to support victims of the Oct. 7 attack and to "helprebuild damaged infrastructure."

With the demolition of Gaza by Israel continuing, localfundraising and advocacyefforts to support Gazans have ramped up in recent weeks, and theMuslim Association of Hamilton event is one example.

Awater treatment system for Gaza

After prayers that Friday, Mirza calledpeople over one at a time.Smiling, he toldone man, "We need a g note ($1,000) from you."

Mirza saidhe won't call out anyone who can't afford to give but isn't shy about asking others. Growing up, he said, his father taught him you have to help others.

MAH is a charitable organization that provides religious and social services to Hamilton Muslims. Its website states the group was founded in the 1960s by a group of MuslimMcMaster University students who settledin the area. In Mirza's lifetime, he says, the city's Muslim community has grown from about 100 people to over 50,000.

This month,MAH is working with Human Concern International, a Canada-basedrelief organization. Human Concern's director of community relief,Alaa Elsayed, told CBC Hamiltonthe group isworking with the MAH to raise $200,000 for a well and water treatment system they hope to build as soon as possible. A lack of clean water in Gaza has contributed to a "perfect storm for disease," doctors and aid workers told Reuters earlier this month.

Elsayed said it takes two to four weeks to buildand the organization already has one in the West Bank. Once it's set up, "hopefully it will not be bombed," he said.

Palestinians flee after strike in Rafah

9 months ago

Duration 0:49

People were rushed to overburdened health centres on Wednesday after a strike in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Elsayed, who's also an imam, lives in Hamilton's Stoney Creek area. He said the local community has been rallying, recognizing how "dire the need is." His wife is from Gaza and has lost family in the conflict, he said.

Days spent on the phone to arrange support

Burlington, Ont., residentSabrina Elewawas born and raised in Gaza. Sheleft for Canada during the 2008 war.

Elewa said other than her parents and siblings, the rest of her family lives in Gaza, many of them on one street.

On Nov. 7, she said, an Israeli airstrike on that street destroyed 50 homes, including five of her family's. Many died and since then, "our entire neighbourhood has nowhere to go."

In response, Elewa is working with family and friends in Canada and abroad to fundraise for her family in Gaza.

To date, she said, they've sent about US$2,000 back home so peoplecan buy food and pay for shelter. She saidsome peopleare starving aseven if people have money, in some areasthere's nothing to buy.

To help, she said she and others aresending money to trusted friends and family who can buy supplies and share them.

"We spend about 10 hours a day on the phone trying to catch a signal with someone in Gaza, and then as soon as we do, [we ask] who do we need to contact? What numbers do you have? And then after that, we start to play a game of telephone."

She said it's "very difficult" to get throughand they're trying to get electronic SIMcards to family members to make communications easier. While she'd also like to see the federal government and other political leaders take a stronger humanitarian stance, she'll keep going with her efforts.

"Really it's just a game of just going back and forth until we succeed in whatever it is we're trying to do."

Canada voted earlier this month in favour of a non-binding motion before the United Nations General Assembly calling for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire." But in ayear-end interview with CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saidCanada's support for Israel has not changed, despite the UN vote.

"We've always said that Israel has a right to defend itself in accordance with international law. We have always called for the protection of civilians," he said.

Workingto reunite families

Hamiltonian Rani Hemaid has also been calling on the government to do more as away to help.

LikeElewa, hewas born and raised in Gaza, leavingduring the2014 war. "I still live the nightmares," he said, of the impact of violence he experienced there.

Hemaid's mother, father, brother, sister and 10 nieces and nephews all still live in Gaza.

On Oct. 10, his familysurvived an attack that destroyed their family home, so Hemaid started working to bring them to Canada.

But he ran up against the limit of Canada's immigration measures, which until this week, waslimited to bringing in Canadians, permanent residents, their spouses and children.

On Thursday, Federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced the government will start granting temporary residency to extended family members including spouses, common law partners, children, grandchildren, siblings, parents or grandparents, who want to leave Gaza. However, movement out of Gaza remains extremely challenging, saidImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in a media release. Itmay also not be possible as countries set their own entry and exit requirements, it added.

Working alongside other community members with family in Gaza, and some elected officials, such asNew Democratic Party members of parliament Matthew Green and Jenny Kwan, Hemaid has been lobbying the government to adopt suchchanges bygoing to Ottawa, taking part in a press conference and letter writing.

After news of the change broke on Thursday, he told CBC Hamilton via text that he was "thrilled to hear" it.

Hemaid said the change still excludespeople in Canada who are not permanent residents or citizens from bringing in family, and does not permit people to bring their aunts or uncles to Canada, which he would have liked.

"The most important [thing] is to see how the government will reflect these on the ground in terms of how fast applications can be approved and people can be evaluated," he wrote.

Hemaid told CBC Hamilton earlier in the week being unable to bring his family to Canada has made him feel guiltyand hasprevented him from sleeping and eating.

He was dreading Christmas, he said,because government officials generally become harder to reach yet hisadvocacy work will continue.

"We know once Christmas hits, there is no one to pick up your call. All the constituency offices are closed, everyone is celebrating their holiday, and we are mourning our families," he said.