A Canadian-Palestinian doctor, who was recently shot on the Israeli-Gaza border, met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Tuesday and asked for $15-million in government funding to support the installation of solar panels on hospitals in Gaza.
Tarek Loubani met Mr. Trudeau on Parliament Hill, where he talked about his ordeal and the ongoing health crisis faced by Palestinians living in Gaza. Dr. Loubani, a 37-year-old emergency physician from London, Ont., made headlines last month when he was shot by an Israeli sniper on the Gaza border while providing medical care for Palestinians injured during demonstrations against the inauguration of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
Speaking to reporters following his meeting with the Prime Minister, Dr. Loubani said he asked Mr. Trudeau for Canadian foreign-aid funding to support the installation of solar panels on hospitals in Gaza, which he estimates would cost about $15-million. Hospitals in Gaza operate on only four hours of electricity per day and backup generators tend to fail, Dr. Loubani said, often forcing emergency-room doctors and nurses to work in darkness.
“That will provide care and electricity for all the intensive-care units, all the operating rooms and all the dialysis machines in the hospitals in Gaza, as well as solar power for primary health clinics,” said Dr. Loubani, who is also an associate professor at the University of Western Ontario’s medical school.
“I am very grateful for the interest and the attention that all members of the government, opposition and other parties have taken in what is fundamentally a humanitarian project, that is not political.”
He also met with Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and MPs from all the major federal parties during his visit to Ottawa.
Dr. Loubani expressed gratitude to Mr. Trudeau for his statement deploring the shooting and his calls for an independent investigation into Israel’s use of live ammunition against civilians.
”That statement saved lives. That statement changed what happened and, in fact, the next week after that statement during the protests, no live ammunition was used on protesters,” he said.
Dr. Loubani, who has served as an emergency field doctor in Tanzania and conflict zones such as Iraq and southern Lebanon, said he was wearing a green surgeon’s outfit and standing with several orange-vested paramedics about 25 metres from the protests at the border when he was shot on May 14.
He was helped by Palestinian paramedics on the scene, including 36-year old Musa Abuhassanin. About an hour later, Mr. Abuhassanin was shot and killed by a sniper while providing medical help to protesters north of where Dr. Loubani was shot.
More than 2,700 Palestinians suffered injuries and 60 people were killed by Israeli gunfire that day – the bloodiest day in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the 2014 Gaza war. Hamas, the Islamist terror group that controls Gaza, admitted that 50 of the 60 Palestinians killed were members of their militant group.
Dr. Loubani has said he will “fully co-operate” with an Israeli military investigation into the shooting, although he has expressed doubts about the impartiality of Israel‘s military investigating actions taken by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). He said he could not comment further on the investigation Tuesday, as it is ongoing.
“I’m not losing sleep over this investigation. I’m really interested in making sure that the problems I saw that caused the desperation that drove these protests get better so that the lives of people in Gaza and the Palestinians in general are improved through the good work of humanitarians everywhere, the government of Canada and Canadians.”
Ms. Freeland said last month that Canada is talking to other partners about setting up a neutral inquiry to shed light on Israel’s use of live ammunition against Palestinian protesters, as well as the shooting of Dr. Loubani. Israel’s ambassador to Canada, Nimrod Barkan, said his country will not co-operate with an international inquiry and said Israel has a right to defend its borders.
With files from Reuters