Palestinian family reunited in Canada after father pleads with federal government

Arriving with his family Thursday morning at Toronto's Pearson Airport, Abdallah Alhamadni smiled, looked at his wife and three sons and let out a deep sigh of relief.

His loved ones were finally safe from the violent conflict between Israel and Hamas that erupted most recently this past spring. 

"I used to wake up scared for my family," he explained from his home in Brampton, Ont.."l feel God rewarded me for my patience."

Alhamadni fled Gaza in 2019. His refugee claim was approved last year. After that, he asked the federal government to grant an emergency permit to bring his wife and three children to Canada.

Then, fighting between Israel and Hamas broke out again this past May. And one night in mid-June, explosions lit up the night sky above Gaza as Israeli forces shelled the Palestinian enclave.

Some of those explosions erupted just a kilometre from the family's home, and Alhamadni desperately pleaded with Ottawa to grant temporary residency permits to his family and other refugees whose applications were slowed by COVID-19 delays.

While he waited, he worked, spending much of the pandemic transporting COVID-19 patients between their homes, hospitals and long-term care facilities.

"I am a health worker. They call me a hero. But I want to be a hero in the eyes of my children," Alhamadni told CBC News in June.

"I am transferring COVID cases all the time, trying to help the community, trying to help people, trying to help Canada … Now, I am asking Canada to save my life and my family's life."

His pleas for help were answered soon after he spoke to CBC News.

In early August, his wife, Hala Alhamadni, and their children — Mustafa,15,  Zain,14  and Quais ,11 — left Gaza, and met him in Cairo before travelling together to Toronto.

"I feel the freedom, I feel the safety," Adlhamadni explained.

Canada has issued temporary residency permits in emergency situations before, including after the deadly fuel tank explosion in Beirut last August, the downing of a Ukrainian jetliner by Iranian missiles last year and the Ethiopian Airlines crash in 2019, said Matthew Behrens, co-ordinator of the Rural Refugee Rights Network.

In June, Canada granted a temporary residency permit to the family of Ottawa's Jihan Qunoo, who fled Gaza in 2019 and came forward to the media amid the fighting abroad, desperate to be reunited with her children and husband.

The move came after a petition signed by some 25,000 people and several days of lobbying, said Behrens, who was involved in Qunoo's case.

Now, the Alhamadni family is quarantining together in their Brampton home, looking to the future with hope for the first time in a long time. 

"It's like a dream," Abdallah Alhamadni explained. 

"I'm grateful to God ... to Canada."