A woman with family in the Gaza Strip says she doesn’t know if she will see any of her relatives again as communication becomes limited due to a blackout there amid the three-week war between Israel and Hamas.
“I’ve lost 18 family members so far and the number’s only escalating,” Riham Balousha, a resident of Mississauga, Ont., told CTV News Channel on Saturday.
She said the past two weeks have been very difficult, especially with the lack of communication with her loved ones.
A couple of days ago, Balousha said her grandfather was able to briefly call her mother to say he was still alive. There has been no such word from him since.
“So it’s been a very devastating situation and what makes it a lot worse is we just don’t know when it’s going to end or if I’m ever going to be able to see any of my family members,” she said.
Israeli bombardments have knocked out most communications in Gaza, The Associated Press reports. The Gaza Strip, with a population of 2.3 million people, has been under siege since Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
A Gaza Health Ministry spokesman told reporters that the communications disruptions have “totally paralyzed” the health network.
The United Nations International Telecommunication Union said Saturday that it “condemns the communication blackout in Gaza and calls for life-saving access to networks to be restored.”
Balousha, who described the situation in Gaza as “essentially a genocide,” said “to not have water, to not have food, it’s a war crime.”
More than 1,400 people, most of whom were civilians, were killed in Israel during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli government says. The Israeli military says the death toll includes at least 311 soldiers.
At least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza, the Israeli government says, with four hostages having since been released.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported Saturday that more than 7,700 people, mostly women and minors, have died in the three weeks since the war began. The ministry says an estimated 1,700 people are trapped under rubble.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening that the military has opened a “second stage” in the war against Hamas by sending ground forces into Gaza and expanding attacks from the ground, air and sea.
He said this would increase ahead of a broad ground invasion.
Canadians have been caught on both sides of the conflict. The federal government on Thursday confirmed the death of a seventh unnamed Canadian in the war, while another two Canadians remain missing.
Most died following Hamas’ attack on a music festival near the Israel-Gaza border that killed 260 people.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION
Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” during an appearance on CTV News Channel Thursday.
“What we are hearing from our colleagues in Gaza is that there is no real safe space to stay,” he said. “And, of course, these are great matter of concern for all of us.”
On top of food and water shortages, the ability of hospitals to provide life-saving services could end if fuel runs out, he said. The continued consumption of unsafe drinking water will also lead to health outbreaks among the population.
While trucks carrying humanitarian aid have been allowed to enter Gaza, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisis said Saturday that the number is far below the needs of the population.
“This is why we are asking — we are calling on — all the parties to get humanitarian aid in, to get safe access for humanitarian worker,” Della Longa said.
CANADA AT THE UN
During an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, members voted in favour of a non-binding resolution sponsored by Jordan that, in part, called for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities” in the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Canadian government has designated Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, a terrorist entity since 2002.
Although the UN resolution did not mention Hamas, the text did include a section, “Condemning all acts of violence aimed at Palestinian and Israeli civilians, including all acts of terrorism and indiscriminate attacks, as well as all acts of provocation, incitement and destruction.”
The resolution ultimately passed 120-14. Canada was one of 45 countries that abstained from the vote.
This week, the Canadian government called for “humanitarian pauses,” which could allow for the movement of aid, but has stopped short of calling for a ceasefire.
Israel’s military has dismissed the possibility of a Hamas-proposed ceasefire deal in exchange for the release of hostages, with a spokesperson calling it a “cynical exploitation” of their families’ anxiety. A representative for the families of hostages held by Hamas says they support a prisoner swap.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on Friday that 53 of its colleagues have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7.
The organization Humanitarian Coalition, which will receive up to $10 million in matching donations from the Canadian government as part of a campaign to help Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, also is demanding a ceasefire.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
MONCTON, N.B. – New Brunswick RCMP say two youths have been arrested after an emergency alert was issued Monday evening about someone carrying a gun in the province’s southeast.
Caledonia Region Mounties say they were first called out to Main Street in the community of Salisbury around 7 p.m. on reports of a shooting.
A 48-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from gunshot wounds and he was rushed to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Police say in the interest of public safety, they issued an Alert Ready message at 8:15 p.m. for someone driving a silver Ford F-150 pickup truck and reportedly carrying a firearm with dangerous intent in the Salisbury and Moncton area.
Two youths were arrested without incident later in the evening in Salisbury, and the alert was cancelled just after midnight Tuesday.
Police are still looking for the silver pickup truck, covered in mud, with possible Nova Scotia licence plate HDC 958. They now confirm the truck was stolen from Central Blissville.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. – Golf Canada has set an impressive stretch goal of having 30 professional golfers at the highest levels of the sport by 2032.
The World Junior Girls Golf Championship is a huge part of that target.
Credit Valley Golf and Country Club will host the international tournament from Sept. 30 to Oct. 5, with 24 teams representing 23 nations — Canada gets two squads — competing. Lindsay McGrath, a 17-year-old golfer from Oakville, Ont., said she’s excited to be representing Canada and continue to develop her game.
“I’m really grateful to be here,” said McGrath on Monday after a news conference in Credit Valley’s clubhouse in Mississauga, Ont. “It’s just such an awesome feeling being here and representing our country, wearing all the logos and being on Team Canada.
“I’ve always wanted to play in this tournament, so it’s really special to me.”
McGrath will be joined by Nobelle Park of Oakville, Ont., and Eileen Park of Red Deer, Alta., on Team Canada 2. All three earned their places through a qualifying tournament last month.
“I love my teammates so much,” said McGrath. “I know Nobelle and Eileen very well. I’m just so excited to be with them. We have such a great relationship.”
Shauna Liu of Maple, Ont., Calgary’s Aphrodite Deng and Clairey Lin make up Team Canada 2. Liu earned her exemption following her win at the 2024 Canadian Junior Girls Championship while Deng earned her exemption as being the low eligible Canadian on the world amateur golf ranking as of Aug. 7.
Deng was No. 175 at the time, she has since improved to No. 171 and is Canada’s lowest-ranked player.
“I think it’s a really great opportunity,” said Liu. “We don’t really get that many opportunities to play with people from across the world, so it’s really great to meet new people and play with them.
“It’s great to see maybe how they play and take parts from their game that we might also implement our own games.”
Golf Canada founded the World Junior Girls Golf Championship in 2014 to fill a void in women’s international competition and help grow its own homegrown talent. The hosts won for the first time last year when Vancouver’s Anna Huang, Toronto’s Vanessa Borovilos and Vancouver’s Vanessa Zhang won team gold and Huang earned individual silver.
Medallists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., who was fourth in the individual competition at the inaugural tournament. She was on Canada’s bronze-medal team in 2014 with Selena Costabile of Thornhill, Ont., and Calgary’s Jaclyn Lee.
Other notable competitors who went on to become LPGA Tour winners include Angel Yin and Megan Khang of the United States, as well as Yuka Saso of the Philippines, Sweden’s Linn Grant and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand.
“It’s not if, it’s when they’re going to be on the LPGA Tour,” said Garrett Ball, Golf Canada’s chief operating officer, of how Canada’s golfers in the World Junior Girls Championship can be part of the organization’s goal to have 30 pros in the LPGA and PGA Tours by 2032.
“Events like this, like the She Plays Golf festival that we launched two years ago, and then the CPKC Women’s Open exemptions that we utilize to bring in our national team athletes and get the experience has been important in that pathway.”
The individual winner of the World Junior Girls Golf Championship will earn a berth in next year’s CPKC Women’s Open at nearby Mississaugua Golf and Country Club.
Both clubs, as well as former RBC Canadian Open host site Glen Abbey Golf Club, were devastated by heavy rains through June and July as the Greater Toronto Area had its wettest summer in recorded history.
Jason Hanna, the chief operating officer of Credit Valley Golf and Country Club, said that he has seen the Credit River flood so badly that it affected the course’s playability a handful of times over his nearly two decades with the club.
Staff and members alike came together to clean up the course after the flooding was over, with hundreds of people coming together to make the club playable again.
“You had to show up, bring your own rake, bring your own shovel, bring your own gloves, and then we’d take them down to the golf course, assign them to areas where they would work, and then we would do a big barbecue down at the halfway house,” said Hanna. “We got guys, like, 80 years old, putting in eight-hour days down there, working away.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fenway Park has the Ted Williams seat. And now Citi Field has the Grimace seat.
The kid-friendly McDonald’s character made another appearance at the ballpark Monday, when the New York Mets unveiled a commemorative purple seat in section 302 to honor “his special connection to Mets fans.”
Wearing his pear-shaped purple costume and a baseball glove on backwards, Grimace threw out a funny-looking first pitch — as best he could with those furry fingers and short arms — before New York beat the Miami Marlins at Citi Field on June 12.
That victory began a seven-game winning streak, and Grimace the Mets’ good-luck charm soon went viral, taking on a life of its own online.
New York is 53-31 since June 12, the best record in the majors during that span. The Mets were tied with rival Atlanta for the last National League playoff spot as they opened their final homestand of the season Monday night against Washington.
The new Grimace seat in the second deck in right field — located in row 6, seat 12 to signify 6/12 on the calendar — was brought into the Shannon Forde press conference room Monday afternoon. The character posed next to the chair and with fans who strolled into the room.
The seat is available for purchase for each of the Mets’ remaining home games.
“It’s been great to see how our fanbase created the Grimace phenomenon following his first pitch in June and in the months since,” Mets senior vice president of partnerships Brenden Mallette said in a news release. “As we explored how to further capture the magic of this moment and celebrate our new celebrity fan, installing a commemorative seat ahead of fan appreciation weekend felt like the perfect way to give something back to the fans in a fun and unique way.”
Up in Boston, the famous Ted Williams seat is painted bright red among rows of green chairs deep in the right-field stands at Fenway Park to mark where a reported 502-foot homer hit by the Hall of Fame slugger landed in June 1946.
So, does this catapult Grimace into Splendid Splinter territory?
“I don’t know if we put him on the same level,” Mets executive vice president and chief marketing officer Andy Goldberg said with a grin.
“It’s just been a fun year, and at the same time, we’ve been playing great ball. Ever since the end of May, we have been crushing it,” he explained. “So I think that added to the mystique.”
