OTTAWA — Canadian aid is being airdropped into Gaza a day after Ottawa joined allies in recognizing Palestinian statehood — a step which has prompted both praise and condemnation in the Middle East.
Israel has slightly loosened its tight restrictions on food and medicine reaching the Gaza Strip in response to an international outcry over starvation in the Palestinian territory.
After hundreds were shot dead at Israeli-run aid sites, Ottawa and Canadian charities urged Israel to allow truckloads of aid into Gaza to be distributed through the United Nations.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said Jordan is helping to airdrop Canadian aid and has posted a photo of aid pallets with Canadian flags taped to them.
Aid experts have said that airdrops are vastly less effective than truck convoys. Some of the airdropped pallets have fallen into the sea, and at least one has struck and killed Palestinians on the ground.
“Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA aid agency, wrote on social media.
“Manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates (and) guarantee safe movements.”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney cited Israel’s aid restrictions and the need to preserve a path to a two-state solution as reasons for declaring that Canada would officially recognize a State of Palestine.
Carney said the move was conditional on the Palestinian Authority undertaking serious reforms and holding an election next year for the first time in two decades.
Canada has for years called for a two-state solution, which means the eventual creation of a Palestinian state that would exist in peace alongside Israel.
Before this week, Ottawa had been suggesting this would come at the end of peace talks between Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
But the federal government said last fall that recognition might come sooner because of the spread of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Israel’s high death count in Gaza. Carney cited both concerns in his announcement Wednesday.
Carney’s announcement was praised by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar and by Canadian advocates for Palestinians. The Israeli government condemned the move, while Canadian Jewish organizations have argued it will undermine ceasefire negotiations and encourage further violence.
University of Ottawa international affairs professor Thomas Juneau said Carney is making the right move toward peace in the Middle East by trying to give a Palestinian government legitimacy so it can counter Hamas.
The Palestinian Authority currently controls large parts of the West Bank through the Fatah party. Hamas, which Canada has listed as a terror group, has full control of Gaza.
Israel has claimed control of both territories since 1967, through what Canada and others deem to be an illegal occupation.
Neither territory has held an election since 2006 and polls by the anticorruption Aman Coalition think tank have found widespread concerns about corruption in both Palestinian governments.
Juneau said it’s “counterproductive” to suggest that the Palestinian Authority is too flawed to be reformed, especially since there is no credible alternative.
“Words are not going to defeat Hamas,” he said. “One of the ways to do that is to strengthen the P.A. relative to Hamas.”
Carney said Wednesday that Canada needs to act to preserve a path to a two-state solution, and that moves by allies toward Palestinian statehood provided “an ability to influence” the situation.
Juneau said Carney was clear about Canada’s limited influence on the situation in the Middle East.
“It is not earth-shattering. It is not a game-changer at all,” he said. “If there is to be a marginal but real impact by countries other than the U.S., it’s only if they act in a concerted way.”
Juneau said he’ll be watching to see if other countries pledge financial support to efforts to reform the P.A. ahead of the September meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. Canada, France and others plan to make official their recognition of the State of Palestine at that UN meeting.
“The only option we have, if we are to be serious about peace, is to strengthen the P.A.,” Juneau said.
Juneau said the Liberals likely weighed the political reaction in both Jewish and Muslim communities when deciding how to respond to events in the Middle East — including the impact of not changing Canada’s policies.
He also said he wonders whether Carney is making foreign policy decisions with less of a focus on domestic politics than his predecessors.
“Of course domestic political considerations mattered — it would just make no sense to pretend otherwise. But perhaps less (so) than in the past,” Juneau said.
The Conservatives have argued that Canada is encouraging Hamas, while the NDP says Ottawa needs to go further and restrict trade and arms sales to Israel.
Carney did not have an immediate response when asked whether it would pursue restrictions on trade with Israel.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2025.
Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press
