Israeli and Palestinian ambassadors to Canada speak with CTV Morning Live

The ambassadors of Israel and the Palestinian General Delegation to Canada appeared separately on CTV Morning Live in Ottawa on Thursday morning to share their views on the war between Israel and Hamas now into its sixth day.

Palestinian Delegation Ambassador Mona Abuamra says Gaza residents are paying a terrible price in the war.

"This war, Israel has announced it against Hamas, but it is taking it on the civilian population in Gaza that has already been living in devastation for more than a decade and a half," Abuamra that CTV Morning Live Thursday morning. "The bombing is not against Hamas; 60 per cent of people who have been murdered until now are women and children, so this is not a targeted way of bombing that they are claiming. It is retaliation against Hamas."

Israeli Ambassador-designate Iddo Moed says Hamas has installed weapons in the most densely populated areas of Gaza, effectively holding its residents captive.

"We have to look at the Gaza Strip as a sort of huge time bomb. People live on an enormous amount of explosives; if you just notice that 5,000 rockets were fired at Israel at the beginning stage and they continue to fire hundreds of rockets every day then you realize you must have many more of those and they have other kinds of explosives, so it's a huge time bomb," Moed said.

"The people of Gaza that are not the enemies of Israel, of course, are suffering, we understand that. But we are at war with a terrorist organization that is managed and directed by players that are outside the region and threaten the existence of the state of Israel."

CTV Morning Live invited Ambassador-designate Moed and Ambassador Abuamra to appear on the show together for a panel-style discussion about the Israel-Hamas war. Both parties declined that opportunity and had been directed by their governments to only do one-on-one interviews. The two ambassadors appeared on the show separately Thursday morning.

• The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
• Sign up now for our nightly CTV News Ottawa newsletter

CTV Morning Live host Stefan Keyes asked Ambassador Abuamra how the Palestinian community feels that Canada and the western world stands behind Israel.

"Devastated, on more than one level. Our Palestinian community here has so many of their families and close friends that are actually right now under this aggression," Abuamra said.

"The community is devastated, not to mention all of the discourse that has been portrayed. It's not against Hamas, it's against Palestine and the Palestinians altogether and that could be seen in the attacks on any of the gatherings or demonstrations that the Palestinian community has been setting up to support their people that are dying on the ground. Portraying them in support of Hamas and to celebrate, as they were mentioned, the murders of Israelis which is not true," Abuamra said.

"They are having to deal with hate calls every day, we're hearing about that. It's especially painful when the government; the heads of the government, the ministers, the prime minister makes statements that does not actually separate between that community and what's happening in Palestine."

Israel's ambassador says the "strong support" from the Jewish community and Canadians "from all walks of life – that's very heartwarming."

"It's not just because Israel is hurting; it's because people believe we have to fight terrorism, we have to fight fanaticism, hatred, incitement – these people who inflicted those terrible heinous crimes grew up in a way that made them become monsters," Moed said.

The Israeli ambassador is urging further support from the Canadian government.

"I think the international community should continue to pressure and to make clear to the relevant parties in the Middle East not to further escalate this conflict, to stay out of it. I think the Canadian government is doing that and I implore them to continue to do it in the future because this is not going to be over very soon."

There are more than 4,000 Canadians registered in Israel, according to federal officials.