‘I can’t lose any more of my family’: Palestinian Montrealers demand Canada fast-track visas for family stuck in Gaza

Mahmoud El-Kahlout's 13-year-old daughter was killed in Gaza, and he says he can't grieve properly as he worries for his remaining family members in the devastated territory. (CTV)

It’s been over a year and a half since Mahmoud El-Kahlout’s 13-year-old daughter died of malnutrition in Gaza, six years after he first started trying to bring her to Canada from the devastated region.

The Montreal resident said he was waiting for his Canadian permanent residency to be approved so he could sponsor an immigration application for his daughter, Jana, who had cerebral palsy.

El-Kahlout’s Canadian status was confirmed in February 2024, one month after Jana’s death.

“I lost my daughter in the war on Gaza two weeks before we were supposed to reunite,” he says. “She lived a life of hardship.”

El-Kahlout tells CTV News he has not had time to process his grief as he still worries for the surviving members of his family in Gaza.

He says he is now trying to bring them to Quebec but laments that red tape is making it impossible.

CTV News first started speaking with El-Kahlout three weeks ago.

Since then, he says his cousin and his children were killed in their tents by Israeli bombs, and several other family members were critically injured.

“I can’t lose any more of my family,” he said. “There is no life in Gaza.”

He explains that his ex-wife, Samar Alkhdour, first moved to Ohio, U.S., in 2017, with two of the couple’s children, now aged 11 and eight, to complete a Master’s degree in international development.

El-Kahlout, who worked in humanitarian aid in Gaza, initially stayed behind with Jana.

He finally left in 2018 and has been in Montreal since 2019, when his asylum claim was accepted.

Jana, who had brain atrophy and always needed two to three caretakers nearby, could not safely travel and stayed behind with El-Kahlout’s parents, as well as his brother, Hasan, and his wife, Mariam.

El-Kahlout says he told Canadian officials that his daughter was still in Gaza, but faced delays with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) while trying to reunite with her.

Due to her advanced medical condition, El-Kahlout said he had originally thought it would be easier to get her out of the country once he and his ex-wife were resettled in Canada and became permanent residents.

They say they did not expect to face so many bureaucratic hurdles.

Despite meeting with Canadian politicians, including former attorney general of Canada David Lametti, El-Kahlout’s requests to have Jana leave Gaza remained stalled.

He says he believes his family faced anti-Palestinian prejudice.

“We are here for a humanitarian issue, to save our kid,” said El-Kahlout. “We don’t start any conflict. We are Palestinians who live in Canada, and we need a solution.”

El-Kahlout says Global Affairs Canada finally permitted Jana to enter Canada in December 2023, as her life was at risk, but her health had already greatly deteriorated due to a lack of access to food and medication.

Jana died on Jan. 8, 2024 – days after her thirteenth birthday – just as her aunt and uncle, Hasan and Mariam, were preparing to bring her through the Rafah crossing to safety.

“We lost Jana in this genocide,” says El-Kahlout. “The available resources were not enough to save her, and she passed away, leaving us with immense grief.”

A chance encounter

Jana’s death created more hurdles for Hasan and Mariam, who was pregnant at the time, to leave the devastated Strip.

Their documents showed that they should be travelling with a 13-year-old, but because of the war, they were unable to procure her death certificate.

The two were stranded in Egypt for months without a home or income while El-Kahlout advocated for them to join him.

El-Kahlout said he was getting nowhere with Global Affairs Canada until a chance encounter with then-prime minister Justin Trudeau, during the byelection in Montreal’s LaSalle—Émard—Verdun riding in September 2024, led to a long-awaited advance in the file.

“I told him I will not move until you find a solution for my brother and his wife,” El-Kahlout recalls.

He says Trudeau handed him a card with his office’s number, and after two weeks, El-Kahlout received an email saying Hasan and Mariam’s visas were approved.

The two finally joined El-Kahlout in Quebec.

Now, he says he wants to find a way to get his parents and other siblings out of Gaza.

“Every day, they text me asking me to get them out,” El-Kahlout said. “The government must do more … I need another miracle for my family, and not just my family but all Gazans.”

‘A heartbreaking failure’

Montrealer Israa Hilles laments she is all too familiar with Global Affairs Canada delays, calling the situation “heartbreaking.”

She says she submitted applications to get her siblings and their children to Canada under the country’s special measures for Gaza in January 2024.

Despite meeting all requirements, spending thousands of dollars and doing countless follow-ups, Hilles argues “the applications remain untouched.”

She says her sister and her children are now in Turkey, while her brothers are in Egypt, all without legal status, proper shelter, education or access to medical care.

“Almost two years, and yet we’re still waiting, with no explanation for the delay,” she said. “We’re watching our families suffer while the system stays silent. This isn’t just bureaucracy — it’s people’s lives on hold. One of my brothers [is] lost in Gaza since December 2023, and until now no updates.”

Those trying to cross into Egypt from the Rafah border must pay thousands of dollars – $5,000 USD for a child and up to $10,000 for an adult, according to El-Kahlout and Hilles.

In response to the deteriorating situation, Canada opened a temporary resident visa (TRV) program to allow 5,000 Palestinians to reunite with extended family.

It stopped accepting applications on March 6, according to the IRCC website.

IRCC says it does not plan on accepting any new applications.

According to a July 23 Amnesty International press release, “only a few dozen Gazans have arrived in Canada under the TRV program. Some 800 Gazans have arrived through other pathways.”

It called the program “a heartbreaking failure.”

“Families remain painfully separated, with many loved ones trapped in Gaza under relentless bombardment or stranded in Egypt, often in overcrowded or unsafe conditions while awaiting word on their TRV status,” stated Amnesty International.

The biggest challenge

IRCC confirmed to CTV News that some 1,750 people who exited Gaza have been approved to come to Canada, and 864 people had arrived as of July 8.

The department pointed out that movement out of Gaza is the main hurdle to family reunification in Canada, “as each country sets its own entry and exit requirements.”

“While we continue to advocate for the safe exit of applicants, IRCC does not have the mandate or ability to evacuate foreign nationals from conflict zones,” it noted. “Ultimately, as part of the process of applying to this program and before an application can be finalized, people need to be able to exit Gaza to complete their biometrics, which continues to be the biggest challenge.”

Nevertheless, Amnesty International is calling on Canada to process all remaining applications within 14 days, using the same security screening requirements as the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel visa, among other measures.

The program exempts Ukrainians from completing immigration medical exams overseas and allows for their applications to be processed within two weeks.

El-Kahlout says he also wants Canadian biometric collection centres set up in Egypt and other neighbouring countries, and for the country to ensure short-term shelter in transit zones so people like Hilles’ family have a proper place to stay.

“Canada wants to recognize a Palestinian state in September … please recognize the Palestinians in Canada,” he said. “We have family, we have loved ones, we can lose them at any time.”

The Gaza Health Ministry and the United Nations have said that over 61,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s forces since Oct. 8, 2023, and estimate thousands of others are missing or trapped under rubble.

Contrarily, the Israeli government says it has documented 1,983 fatalities since that date, adding that 50 hostages are still being held by Hamas, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

El-Kahlout says he desperately hopes he can get his remaining family out before it’s too late.