Lebanese Albertans are desperately trying to get their loved ones to safety as Israel ramps up airstrikes and a ground offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Noor Kanafani’s parents and siblings live in a Beirut suburb bombed by Israeli forces this week.
“They are now displaced, they are hiding in the mountains, and they are just like anticipating every day there are strikes and nobody knows what is the next step,” she said from her Calgary home.
“They are living only moment-by-moment.”
Kanafani has been trying to get them to Canada, but said it is challenging to reserve a flight and gather proper documentation in a war zone.
“We are hoping the Canadian government can help we are asking also for ceasefire, do something, innocent people are being killed every day,” she said.
Calgary Skyview Member of Parliament George Chahal said his constituency office has received numerous calls from Albertans worried about their family members still in Lebanon.
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He said he’s urging everyone to try to get out while the airport is still open.
“The important thing is to get any documentation that is ready in, so we can help Canadian get out as soon as possible,” the Liberal MP said.
“We have already, while the airport is open, helped a lot of Canadians, we hope to get so many more to safety and hopefully we can get a ceasefire and end the war,” Chahal said.
He would not say if there were any plans for the federal government to send chartered flights to help with the evacuation.
Calgary’s Jewish community is also feeling the grip of anxiety and trying to stay closely connected to loved ones, following a massive ballistic missile attack by Iran on Tuesday.
Israel said it intercepted a majority of the weapons.
“I’m online with my dad, my cousins, friends, making sure everyone is ok everyone is in there shelters my husbands parents don’t have a bomb shelter so they hide under their stairwell,” said Ortal Luzon, an Israeli Calgarian.
“It’s doesn’t leave you. It happens and although we are here and they are there, it’s very much part of our lives,” she said.
This week communities around the world are marking Rosh Hashanah — Jewish New Years. But Luzon said they are being told to be vigilant.
“We are not doing less but we are definitely doing it more carefully, with more fear — we don’t feel that we can do it freely, but it’s still going to get done and that is the strength of who we are as a people,” she said.
Luzon said her biggest hope is peace. It’s something many inflicted by this conflict agree on, but nobody knows when or how that could happen.