ManitobaAs a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas begins to take hold in Gaza, members of Manitoba’s Palestinian community are hopeful that displaced families can be reunited with loved ones who fled to Canada to escape the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn strip.Mennonite Central Committee said Friday it was still waiting to deliver 4,000 aid boxesCBC News · Posted: Oct 11, 2025 2:26 PM EDT | Last Updated: 5 hours agoDisplaced Palestinians gather on the coastal road near Wadi Gaza, in the central Gaza Strip, as smoke rises from Israeli military strikes on Thursday. (Abdel Kareem Hana/The Associated Press)As a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas begins to take hold in Gaza, members of Manitoba’s Palestinian community are hopeful that displaced families can be reunited with loved ones who fled to Canada to escape the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn strip.The ceasefire went into effect on Friday, hinging on the release of 48 remaining Israeli hostages — 20 of whom are believed to still be alive — 1,700 detained Palestinians and 250 Palestinians serving prison sentences. Humanitarian aid is expected to begin flowing again into Gaza under the U.S-brokered pause. Rana Abdulla, an advocate for Palestinians fleeing to Manitoba, says she hopes the ceasefire will give people in Gaza some time to “rest and breathe” as they plan to reunite with loved ones abroad. Earlier this year, the Manitoba government welcomed two Palestinian families with children who couldn’t receive the life-changing medical care they needed in Gaza. The province has confirmed its plans to bring a third family to Winnipeg. Abdulla says she has been in contact with a dozen families trying to bring their loved ones in Palestine to Canada, but many of them have been left waiting under piles of paperwork. “There [are] a dozen families waiting for more than 21 months. They have done everything. They filled the forms. They gathered the documents. They submitted the applications. I personally sat down with families and spent 15 hours straight with each family completing applications for them,” she said. Rana Abdulla says she has been in contact with a dozen families trying to bring their loved ones to Canada. (Rosanna Hempel/CBC)”We want a real pathway to save those families … Our families deserve to live.”More than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza over the past two years of Israel’s attacks, launched after Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023. Last month, a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, citing the scale of the killings, aid blockages and forced displacement in its findings.Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) told CBC that, as of July 29, it has brought 880 people to Canada on temporary resident visas through a special-measures program for extended family members fleeing Gaza. The department said 400 others have come to Canada under other programs. That special measures program stopped taking new applications in March, with the IRCC’s website showing that all available spaces have been filled. The department said the program has a cap of 5,000 applications. Abdulla said she has rallied with other Winnipeggers outside the IRCC’s office on Main Street “out of desperation” to help reunite families. “Canada has the tools to act immediately, what is missing is the political will. We are ready to collaborate with the federal and provincial authorities to do everything that’s needed to help our families, to bring loved ones to safety before [many] more lives are lost,” she said. Eve Sotiriadou, executive director of the Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute Family Resource Centre, says her group has been working to collect supplies for the two Palestinian families living in Winnipeg — with plans to welcome a third family soon. Eve Sotiriadou, executive director of the Canadian Muslim Women’s Institute Family Resource Centre, says her organization is still seeking donations for winter clothing, car seats and a stroller for two Palestinian families living in Winnipeg. (CBC)”Our plan is to welcome the third family and focus primarily on the first two families that have significant and close family members still stuck in Gaza,” Sotiriadou said. “But our goal is to get as many families in as possible, so we will definitely not stop with three families,” she said. Sotiriadou said they have been providing food, clothing, furniture, diapers, toys and other supplies, but they are still seeking donations for car seats and cold-weather gear, including a winter stroller. The ceasefire in Gaza is expected to reopen the flow of humanitarian aid into the strip. WATCH | Here’s what the first phase of the ceasefire will bring:Gaza ceasefire: What happens in the next 72 hoursCBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsneaut breaks down what the next 72 hours could look like, now that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a Gaza peace deal. However, Bruce Guenther, director of disaster response with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), says his non-profit was still waiting for the green light to deliver thousands of boxes of food on Friday — after the ceasefire had gone into effect. “We are ready to go at scale. We have 4,000 boxes waiting in Jordan, of food, to get in,” Guenther told Information Radio’s Marcy Markusa on Friday morning. “At this point, there hasn’t been a change to NGOs being able to get aid into Gaza, past the Israeli blockade into Gaza,” he said. He said the MCC is feeling “cautiously optimistic” about the ceasefire, hoping that they can start delivering aid to the famine-striken zone. In August, the world’s leading authority on hunger crises said that famine was occurring in Gaza City. Since the start of the war, 461 people — including 157 children — have died from complications of malnutrition, Gaza’s health ministry says. More than 54,600 Gazan children under the age of five are estimated to be severely malnourished, according to a study from researchers with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East published on Wednesday. “There is famine in Gaza and we need to respond quickly to very urgent needs of the population,” Guenther said, adding he is thankful for the generosity of Manitobans who helped provide the aid MCC is waiting to deliver.Sotiriadou said she was “quite reluctant” to celebrate the latest ceasefire after Israel broke a previous ceasefire agreement in March. She was “skeptical” it would hold, she said. Abdulla was also cautious, but hoped that the ceasefire would allow some time for the Canadian government to bring more refugees to safety. “I hope now they can act quickly and bring more people, especially when there [are] no more excuses for them,” she said. WATCH | Ceasefire brings hope that Palestinian families will find safety in Manitoba:Manitobans hope to reunite with families from Gaza after ceasefire dealThe Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal is a moment many Manitobans have been waiting and watching for. Some are trying to help bring family members from Gaza to the province, but challenges with visas persist.With files from Rosanna Hempel, Marcy Markusa and Gareth Hampshire
Manitobans hopeful Gaza ceasefire will help reunite Palestinians with family in Canada
