Good morning. A growing international coalition is demanding peace in Gaza while withholding pressure on Israel – more on that below, along with the companies cashing in on Canada’s military boost and some cautious optimism about U.S. tariffs. But first:

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More than two dozen countries, including Canada, condemned Israel yesterday for its continued assault on civilians in Gaza. “We come together with a simple, urgent message: the war in Gaza must end now,” foreign ministers said in a joint statement calling for an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages and the full resumption of aid. “The Israeli government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable. Israel must comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”

Or what, exactly? The ministers were vague on that point. “We are prepared to take further action to support an immediate ceasefire and a political pathway to security and peace for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region,” they insisted. It sounded awfully similar to another joint statement issued nine weeks ago. Back then, the leaders of Canada, France and Britain promised they “would not hesitate to take further action” if Israel didn’t stop its military operations in Gaza and lift restrictions on aid.

It didn’t. Ottawa responded by hitting two far-right Israeli cabinet members with sanctions last month, though Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand stressed at the time that Canada remained steadfast in its support for Israel. Those penalties were also for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, not for any activity in Gaza. Some 5,000 Palestinians have died since Canada imposed the sanctions, according to Gaza health authorities, bringing the death toll to more than 59,000 in 21 months of war.

Now Israel has opened up a new front in that war. Tanks pushed into Deir Al-Balah for the first time yesterday, expanding the ground offensive into the last part of Gaza still relatively unscathed from Israeli strikes. The army had mostly avoided assaults on the city, where it believes Hamas may be holding some hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that killed 1,200 people. At least 20 of the 50 hostages remaining in Gaza are thought to be alive.

Several humanitarian organizations are now based in Deir Al-Balah, running shelters, health clinics, a community kitchen and a water desalination plant serving southern Gaza. But this latest Israeli offensive comes on the heels of forced evacuation orders for as many as 80,000 people in the city. That means nearly 88 per cent of Gaza is currently under displacement orders or inside Israeli militarized zones, the UN said yesterday. More than two million civilians are squeezed into about 46 square kilometres of land, where essential services have collapsed.

And so Gaza’s hunger crisis has reached new levels of desperation. According to the UN’s World Food Programme, 90,000 women and children are in urgent need of malnutrition treatment. Roughly one out of every three Palestinians goes without eating for days. When a 1-kg bag of flour costs more than US$100 in local markets, humanitarian aid is the only option for most people to access any sort of food. But trying to reach that food brings the near-daily risk of slaughter.

More than 900 Palestinians have been killed over the past six weeks en route to aid sites and food trucks in Gaza, the UN said. The majority died close to distribution points run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a private organization that the United States supports. The Israeli military recently acknowledged the risk to civilians, saying its forces had been issued new instructions with “lessons learned.” On Saturday, however, Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians travelling at dawn to a GHF distribution site, killing at least three dozen people. On Sunday, Israeli tanks and snipers killed at least 85 Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza, the highest death toll to date. The World Food Programme said most of those killed had gathered near a border crossing. They were hoping to get flour from a UN aid convoy.

In their joint statement yesterday, the foreign ministers condemned Israel for “the drip-feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food.” But there was a noticeable absence among the signatories: The U.S. didn’t add its voice to the choir. The White House isn’t about to throw around demands, Tom Barrack, special envoy to Syria, told reporters from Beirut. In fact, he said, the U.S. “has no business in trying to compel Israel to do anything.”

Ottawa’s massive new boost in defence spending is set to transform the industry, as emerging startups and established players alike are looking to cash in. Read more here about how they’re gearing up for a changing world of warfare.

At home: Conservative MPs and party leader Pierre Poilievre voiced support for two key organizers of the Ottawa “freedom convoy” protests ahead of their sentencing tomorrow.

Abroad: In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that