A Canadian Palestinian citizen journalist, who had been missing for over two weeks and was feared dead, has been found alive in Gaza. In a recent development, Mansour Shouman, known for his daily social media updates on the conflict, shared a new video from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday.
“More than two weeks ago, during the early morning hours, a team of volunteers accompanied Shouman as he ventured out to the West to assess the status of the tent project,” Shouman stated in a video recorded outside Nasser Hospital.
In a strategic move, he revealed that his team deliberately abandoned all electronic devices, effectively evading any potential tracking by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). This decision, however, came at a cost as it meant being disconnected from their loved ones. Shouman reported that his team encountered sniper fire and were surrounded by tanks, forcing them to flee in order to survive.
“We had to seek shelter urgently and for the past two weeks, we have been moving from one residence to another,” he stated in the video shared on Instagram.
The speaker expressed gratitude to the entire team and their family for the support received over the past four months. They emphasized the importance of ongoing support for the work that has been carried out in the last two weeks.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly has recently discussed the situation with Israel Katz, Israel’s foreign affairs minister, as well as with Canada’s diplomats in Ramallah in the West Bank. Joly expressed her intention to have a conversation with Mansour’s mother later today, in order to address the ongoing plight.
Last month, Shadi Sakr, a member of the volunteer team in Canada assisting Shouman with posting videos online, informed CBC News that the most recent communication from Shouman was on January 21 at 3:02 p.m. ET. Shouman sent a video from Khan Younis at that time.
Sakr and Zaheera Soomar, who are part of the Canadian team supporting Shouman, have previously informed media outlets that witnesses claimed to have seen Shouman being apprehended by the IDF. However, the video released on Tuesday does not address this claim. Instead, it states that Shouman and his team were constantly on the move during the two-week period.
In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday, Soomar revealed that his team reached out to Mansour on Feb. 5 and notified both the federal government and the National Council of Canadian Muslims prior to sharing Mansour’s video. In a recent statement, he expressed his commitment to collaborating with the federal government in order to guarantee the safety of Mansour.
