The National Council for Canadian Muslims has called on the federal government to raise the maximum number of Palestinians who can apply for asylum with their Canadian relatives due to the violence in the Gaza Strip.

The extended family program for Gaza residents will be launched next week, as Canadian Palestinians have been requesting assistance from the Canadian government for months to rescue their loved ones from the devastating consequences of the Israeli bombing of the densely populated Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip.

The program will provide visas for up to 1000 Palestinians. This visa will allow them to seek asylum in Canada for three years as long as their families are willing to financially support them during this period.

When Immigration Minister Mark Miller announced the plan last month, he said it was unclear how many people would benefit from this measure, but the number is likely to reach hundreds.

A week later, the ministry published the written policy of the program.

The policy states that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will close the program to new applications after it receives and begins processing the first 1000 applications, or after one year has passed.

The National Council of Canadian Muslims, a national advocacy and lobbying organization, also said it has already been in contact with more than a thousand people who reached out to them to get their families out of Gaza.

Othman Kweik, the communications director of the organization, said there should be no limit.

Matthew Kropovich, spokesperson for the Ministry of Immigration, said in a statement sent by email on January 2 that this limit takes into account the volatile situation on the ground and the difficulty Canada and like-minded countries face in transferring people from Gaza to Egypt.

Last month, Miller said it remains very difficult to ensure safe passage out of the Palestinian territories. Ottawa has no control over who can cross the heavily monitored Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on any given day, and even removing Canadian citizens from the war zone has proven to be a slow and difficult process.

Toronto immigration lawyer Yamina Ansari said she believes the maximum significantly reduces the number of people who need help.

Ansari has called for this policy as part of a dedicated group of immigration lawyers called the Gaza Family Reunification Project.

Ansari, who described the maximum number as disgusting, also said that among the lawyers in this group alone, they know of more than 1000 applicants.

Gaza has been subjected to random and continuous bombing in response to the attack launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas on October 7, which killed about 1200 people in Israel and held 240 others hostage.