Early on Friday, the daily list of foreign nationals authorized to depart for Egypt via the Rafah border crossing included 266 Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and their families. The Palestinian administration, in collaboration with the governments of Egypt and Israel, is responsible for posting that list.

“Canadians who were at the border today for crossing were contacted, and we are hopeful the border will reopen soon to allow them to cross,” the government stated.

According to Canadian national Amro Abumiddain, who departed Gaza earlier this week, his family members waited all day in the hopes of getting to safety.

“They were told (Thursday) that they should be heading to the border today because their name appeared on the list and they went in the morning,” Abumiddain told the Canadian Press.

“They spent the whole day waiting and then at the end of the day, they told them, ‘Just go home because they’re not going to let anyone in.'”

A total of 107 persons with links to Canada passed on Tuesday and Thursday, however, the border was blocked Wednesday due to what a US State Department spokesman described as a “security circumstance.”

Some Canadians have subsequently returned to Canada, while others remain in Cairo; Egypt permits foreigners to stay in the country for 72 hours.

Global Affairs is aware of 550 Canadians, permanent residents, and family members attempting to leave Gaza, including those scheduled to border on Friday.

Meanwhile, the department is implying that Canadians might be among those taken by Hamas in the Oct. 7 incident in Israel.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday that Canada’s senior consular officer was in the Middle East to help arrange the release of Hamas hostages.

This post will “engage with government representatives and others to seek the release of Canadian hostages abroad, including in the Middle East,” according to the department.

Joly has long declined to acknowledge if Canadians were among the captives, ostensibly to avoid complicating the broader rescue operation. Ottawa only mentions “two Canadians who are missing” in the region, citing privacy concerns.

Foreign nationals in the area are attempting to avoid an escalating humanitarian crisis and ongoing Israeli attacks. The shelling is in retribution for Hamas terrorists’ Oct. 7 strikes, which killed 1,400 Israelis and abducted 239 more.

Abumiddain, 45, left Gaza with his wife and three children on Wednesday as part of an American group since their children are US citizens.

He called the previous month a “nightmare.” Abumiddain was in the territory’s center, while his wife and children were in Rafah, near the Egyptian border.

Images of airstrikes in Gaza have already sparked some heated rallies in Canada, and Trudeau expressed concern about Jews and Muslims being targeted on Friday.

He did not provide particular instances, but Montreal police have stated that bullets were fired at two Jewish institutions and that a series of brawls at Concordia University resulted in three individuals being hurt and one being detained.

“What’s happening in the Middle East right now is causing a lot of devastating emotions — fear, anger, grief — on all sorts of different communities, but particularly both the Muslim and the Jewish communities across Canada,” he went on to say.

“We must all be extremely concerned about the rise in tensions, threats of violence, actual acts of violence, and terrorism.”

Trudeau remarked that in previous years, Muslims have stepped up to support Jewish people after synagogue assaults and Jewish people have done the same after mosque tragedies.

“Canadians support one another. We listen to one other’s anguish and loss and offer assistance.”

The White House said on Thursday that Israel had agreed to a daily four-hour “humanitarian pause” in its bombings in Gaza. Canadian authorities expressed hope that the cease-fire would allow additional foreign nationals to flee, the delivery of badly needed humanitarian relief, and the ultimate negotiation of an end to the month-long conflict.

US President Joe Biden said the offer of daily pauses came after he asked Israel to stop bombarding Gaza for three or more days in the expectation that Hamas would free prisoners. He did, however, state that there was “no possibility” of a cease-fire.

According to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, the bombing has killed over 11,000 Palestinians. Another 2,650 persons have gone missing.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on Friday that “far too many” Palestinians have perished and that Israel is not doing enough to prevent civilian fatalities.

According to US authorities, the recent restart of certain water supply and food shipments has failed to match a massive demand for commodities.

Separately, UN human rights official Volker Turk urged on Friday for an inquiry into Israel’s “indiscriminate bombardment and shelling” of densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip.