Nearly 200 Palestinians have managed to escape Gaza and obtain approval to travel to Canada but they had to pay thousands of dollars to smuggle themselves into Egypt. That avenue is now closed off, due to the military campaign Israel launched in Rafah this week.

Samah El-Nazli, a mother of four living in a makeshift tent in Rafah, is among millions of Gazans in overcrowded camps struggling to access food, water and sanitation as the war continues. She and others are opting to use birth control to delay their periods rather than scrambling to find costly pads and tampons.

Canadian citizens and permanent residents with family members trapped in Gaza met privately with Immigration Minister Marc Miller this week to press for changes to the special immigration program they say has so far failed them.

In the face of war, famine and homelessness, desperate Gazans are paying a private company in Cairo exorbitant travel co-ordination fees to help them escape into Egypt through the Rafah border. One international affairs expert says the system is war profiteering at its worst.

Abu Mustafa Naji and his wife decided not to leave their home in Gaza even though it was bombed during the Israel-Hamas war. As Ramadan begins, they chose to break their fast on a table in the middle of what's left.

The Kouta brothers from London., Ont., are among hundreds of Canadians who have fled Gaza since war broke out between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7. The last step of their journey to escape the besieged enclave comes as Israel threatens a ground invasion of Rafah, a border city considered one of the last relatively safe areas of the strip.