TEHRAN – Urging for an international united front to stop Israel including sanctioning Tel Aviv, Celina R. Caesar-Chavannes says what is happening in Gaza is genocide against the Palestinian people.

Tensions have been heating up in West Asia after the Palestinian Hamas group launched a surprise attack on Israel with missiles and troops on October 7. The group said the operation was a reaction to the recurring desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied al-Quds as well as intensified Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli regime declared a state of war and answered with retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip, damaging urban infrastructure and killing civilians. The regime has also intensified the siege of Gaza, leaving the city, home to more than 2 million Palestinians, without water, electricity, fuel, and internet.

In its latest crime against Gazan people, the Zionist regime attacked a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday night which was condemned by the international community, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who reminded that medical facilities are protected by humanitarian law and could not be targeted. 

Over 500 people were killed as a result of a missile strike at al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

Celina R. Caesar-Chavannes, former member of parliament and parliamentary secretary to the prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau shared her own and her daughter's viewpoint on the slaughtering of Palestinian civilians by the Israeli regime with Mehr News Agency.

Here is the full text of her comments sent to MNA: 

"Today, Like others in the world, I have seen the absolute atrocities images coming out of Gaza. Today alone 500 were killed in a bomb attack on a hospital. I think what has happened is that the Western world and my own prime minister here gave a license to Israel to defend itself but what we are seeing right now is not a defense of itself. We are seeing genocide, so I call on the government of Canada to use the same strategy that it imposed sanctions on Russia when it invaded Ukraine, to use all strategies and tools to do what it needs to do to stop Israel. Israel must stop the genocide that is happening right now in Gaza. I also call on the African Union and members of the CARICOM in the Caribbean to do the same. We need a united front. We cannot sit aside and let genocide happen to the Palestinian people."

At the end of her video comments to MNA, she also read her daughter, Candice R. Chavannes' courageous letter to the Palestinian people, too.

Following is the full text of the letter:

"When you hear about Israel and the resistance being launched by Palestine, remember against all odds the Palestinians are fighting for life, dignity, and freedom. All while fighting against the United States model of settler colonization, imperialism, capitalism, and white supremacy.

Let it be known that the fight for Palestine is a fight for the imagination that a decolonized and liberated world is possible, that genocide should not be accepted, and that people will always have the liberty of refusal, and the right to resist. Without justice, there will never be peace. Free the land."