Canadian citizen killed in confrontation with Israeli security forces near Gaza border | CBC News

Israeli police said a Canadian citizen was killed after threatening Israeli security forces with a knife near the Gaza border.

The Israeli military said the man drove to the entrance of an Israeli town close to the Gaza border, left his vehicle and began threatening security forces with a knife. The forces opened fire and killed the man.

There were no other injuries.

The attack took place at the entrance of the Israeli town of Netiv HaAsara, which is just 300 metres north of the Gaza border. Israel has experienced a wave of stabbing attacks across the country during the nine-month war in Gaza.

The war in Gaza has killed more than 38,900 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count. The war began with an assault led by Hamas militants on southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, including several Canadian citizens.

More than 100 hostages taken on Oct. 7 were freed in a pause in fighting late last year, while several others were rescued in Israeli military operations.

It is believed by the Israeli government that about 116 hostages have yet to be repatriated, though about one-third have so far been pronounced dead in absentia.

The Israeli military announced the deaths on Monday of two additional Israeli hostages, saying they believe Yagev Buchshtab, 35, and Alex Dancyg, 76, who were kidnapped from homes in kibbutzim on Oct. 7, were no longer alive, based on intelligence.

Another evacuation order

Precarious humanitarian conditions inside besieged Gaza have worsened with the discovery of the polio virus as water and sanitation services have deteriorated for the territory’s 2.3 million people, most of them displaced. Traces of the virus were found in sewage samples in Gaza.

The Israeli military on Monday ordered the evacuation of part of an area in the Gaza Strip it has designated a humanitarian zone. The military said it is planning to begin an operation against Hamas militants who have embedded themselves in the area and used it to launch rockets toward Israel.

The area includes the eastern part of the Muwasi humanitarian zone, which is located in the southern Gaza Strip. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s punishing air and ground campaign.