Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I'll be very brief, Mr. Chair. All I can say is that all these options continue to be on the table and are considered actively by the government. The advice continues to be provided by officials. I wouldn't say, to the point of the honourable member, that it's due to any deliberate delays.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, an application for judicial review was filed, and I wouldn't want to undermine that process. For that reason, I can't say too much about the specifics of each request. You are right that no permits have been issued since January 8.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. Again, without wanting to pre-empt decisions that the government might take, I can say that sanctions on extremist settlers are under active consideration. It is an option that is being pursued at this time. As you probably know, our sanctions regime demands that we use open-source information in order to identify which individuals or entities to list under our sanctions regime.

Foreign Affairs committee  Canada has announced that it will be part of this initiative and will contribute. It is in talks right now with—

Foreign Affairs committee  Well, that's exactly what is being discussed right now. In the first instance, it will be supplying actual humanitarian goods to be loaded onto ships leaving from Cyprus. We're in discussion with the key actors—Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the Israeli government and the Americans—to see how we can best insert ourselves in that supply.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I wouldn't say the two are mutually exclusive. I can assure you that, in all our discussions with the Israeli government, at every level, we never miss an opportunity to underscore our collective responsibility and the Israeli government's direct responsibility to ensure people's welfare.

Foreign Affairs committee  Absolutely.

Foreign Affairs committee  Unfortunately, I can't get into the specifics of each permit request, and I'm going to ask my colleague to give you the exact term that explains why.

Foreign Affairs committee  It can be anywhere in the continuum. I think what is important is—

Foreign Affairs committee  That would be correct.

Foreign Affairs committee  What I would say is that Israel really is at war right now; it is at war with Hamas. I can tell you having stood three kilometres from the border with Gaza that I could hear gunfire, automatic rifles going off. That's not civilians fighting the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces; that is a terrorist organization.

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, this is obviously a policy decision that will need to be made by the minister and the Prime Minister speaking as representatives of the government. What I can tell you, from the department's side, is that the position has been, and remains, that the only way forward out of this conflict, ultimately, is having two states living side by side.

Foreign Affairs committee  Not necessarily, but there is a continuum there.

Foreign Affairs committee  The advice of the department is, of course, protected and has to go to the minister, so I cannot disclose it to this committee here.

Foreign Affairs committee  It depends on the measure you use and the interpretation you make. What I can tell you is that we see the current violence as taking a devastating humanitarian toll. I repeat, we are applying pressure at every level to urge Israel to exercise as much restraint as possible, from speaking to officials and participating in working groups to reaching out to departments and leaders.