Global Affairs says Canada exploring possible postwar role in Gaza Strip

Mohammed Barabakh sits on a grave with his children at the entrance to his tent, set up in a cemetery in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

OTTAWA -- With Canadian military personnel already deployed to Israel to monitor the ceasefire, the federal government says it’s scoping out how it can best support Palestinians in Gaza in the event a peace deal leads to self-governance.

“Decisions have not yet been made on the level of resources nor the type of assistance that we could provide,” Alexandre Lévêque, an assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, told the House of Commons foreign affairs committee Tuesday.

“The department is working on options to provide to the ministers and prime minister on where we can be most helpful. We have areas of expertise.”

Lévêque said Canada has “deployed civilian and military personnel” to the Civil-Military Coordination Center, a facility in Israel staffed by officials from countries that support the peace deal U.S. President Donald Trump brokered last month.

The Civil-Military Coordination Center, which includes both Israeli and American military officials, monitors the ceasefire and works to advance it through the next steps in the peace plan.

“We are embedded, through a civilian and military presence in this group, in this cell that is there to observe (and) document the daily occurrences of the ceasefire,” Lévêque said

While both Hamas and the Israeli military have been accusing each other of violating the ceasefire, Lévêque said Ottawa is cautiously optimistic it will work.

“The ceasefire has had a few false starts already, but overall it is holding,” he testified. “It will require constant attention by global leaders in order to keep the pressure on all sides, really, for this to continue to hold.”

The countries with personnel at the monitoring centre in Israel are looking to turn it into an international stabilization force. Washington plans to call on the United Nations to launch such a mission, which might involve peacekeeping or a focus on disarmament.

Lévêque said it’s encouraging that the U.S. wants to make this happen through the UN Security Council, since it boosts support for multinational institutions.

He said a UN mission “has a much higher likelihood of drawing the credibility, the legitimacy that the world is looking to, and will therefore also increase the likelihood of military contributions of a peacekeeping nature, or at least of an observation nature.”

Lévêque told MPs that the federal government isn’t sure how it can help Palestinians in Gaza, since the conflict isn’t over. He suggested that Canada’s expertise in removing landmines and providing medical care in conflict zones could be useful.

Lévêque said the looting and criminality in Gaza is likely to drop off once large quantities of food and medicine are again available in the enclave. Right now, he said, agriculture and economic activity are not possible in Gaza.

He did not suggest Canada would put troops on the ground as part of a UN peacekeeping mission — although Prime Minister Mark Carney has not ruled out the idea. Carney attended a major summit in Egypt last month to discuss ways to make Trump’s peace plan work.

Lévêque pointed out that Canada has for years taken part in efforts to train Palestinian security forces and said that work could be expanded as part of a stabilization plan.

“There’s a good basis from which to start there. It would need to be brought up to scale … to then train Palestinian security forces, and then bring them into Gaza,” he said.

In the longer term, Lévêque said, Canada could help with the “consolidation of (Palestinian) essential institutions, be it particularly on transparency, rule of law, and democratic governance.

“And that starts with elections that should happen in the next few years.”

Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld pointed out that Canada acquired experience in building up postwar institutions of governance in Kosovo and East Timor.

MPs asked Lévêque what terms Canada secured from the Palestinian Authority in exchange for its recognition of a Palestinian state — and pressed him on whether it has committed to holding elections next year without the participation of Hamas.

When asked by Conservative MP Shelby Kramp-Neuman whether Canada would retract its recognition of Palestinian statehood if no election is held by 2027, Lévêque said the move is not reversible.

“Excellent question. My understanding of the law, and international law, is that once a state is recognized, it cannot be unrecognized. This is a move, a decision, that happens once,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority has told The Canadian Press that an election can only happen once polls can open in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza — something it says would require peace in Gaza for at least 12 months.

Conservative MP Tamara Kronis challenged Global Affairs Canada officials to explain why Carney said Canada would arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he entered the country. Netanyahu is the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.

Kronis noted that the global court issues arrest warrants only when a state doesn’t have a functioning justice system. She asked why Canada would assume the ICC has jurisdiction in Canada when Israel has independent courts and military tribunals.

“It’s not for GAC to assess whether the arrest warrant was properly issued,” replied Rebecca Netley, an international law adviser at Global Affairs.

“I would not say that the ICC concluded that Israel was a failed state. I would say that the ICC concluded through its lens — of the way in which it values and interprets complementarity — that it did not see evidence that an investigation had been conducted.”

Lévêque also said sanctions on certain Israeli leaders and violent settlers in the West Bank appear to be having an effect, citing a drop in calls for annexation of Palestinian land and a slight decline in violence.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press