A 62-year-old woman from Ontario said that her brother died in northern Gaza after weeks spent searching for food and shelter while awaiting word from the federal government on whether he could come to Canada.

Susan Qarshouli discovered through a Facebook post that her brother Ismail Qarshouli had died on March 4, about two months after she applied to a newly launched program to secure Canadian visas for him and his 25-year-old daughter.

Qarshouli said her daughter, Lina Qarshouli, is now alone in northern Gaza, trying to survive in what international officials have described as a humanitarian disaster.

Qarshouli expressed her only wish is for Ottawa to help her niece escape to live with her in Canada, the country Qarshouli has considered home for more than two decades.

Her son Marcus recently joined her in an interview, and 36-year-old Marcus Qarshouli said in a broken voice: "My mother started arranging the room and fixing everything." "She was packing clothes because they would come with nothing. We truly believe in Canadian values, but we are shocked that they are unable to do anything... It was just so much wasted time, effort, and a lot of false hope."

The Canadian government launched a program in January to provide temporary visas to up to 1,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who have extended family in Canada, provided their families support them upon arrival.

Susan Qarshouli applied for her relatives on the program’s launch day. She said the application was confusing and costly, and she received no response from the federal government in the end on whether her relatives were accepted, or whether they could safely reach Egypt for final processing.

The federal immigration department said in a statement that as of March 11, 986 applications were accepted for processing under the program, but only 14 people managed to cross from Gaza to Egypt for the required final checks and were allowed to come to Canada.

By comparison, Australian authorities said they issued nearly 2,300 visas to Palestinians between the start of the war on October 7, 2023, and February 6, and Ireland issued 90 visas since October 7, according to an email from Irish immigration officials.

Marcus Qarshouli fell silent when told that only 14 people had succeeded in obtaining temporary Canadian visas. He finally said: "That's heartbreaking."

Immigration Minister Marc Miller expressed frustration over Canada’s inability to facilitate the crossing of extended family members to Egypt. He said in Ottawa on Monday that Canada is urging Egypt and Israel to allow these people to leave so they can complete security screening in Cairo and get their entry visas.

He added that Canada is ready to receive more than 1,000 applicants but did not specify the number.

Ismail Qarshouli was enjoying retirement after a long career as an education director when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages. Israel responded quickly with air and ground assaults, killing more than 30,000 people, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

The war displaced 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians from their homes, including the Qarshouli family, and a UN-backed report on Monday said famine is "imminent" in northern Gaza, where 70% of residents suffer catastrophic hunger.

Marcus Qarshouli said: "Lina Qarshouli was earning a law degree when the war started.”

Qarshouli said, "She and her father have nothing to do with Hamas or the attacks," adding that the Israeli assault "feels like collective punishment."

Qarshouli was 67 when he died. There are no longer functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, so there was no doctor to declare his death or determine how he died.

Power outages and infrastructure damage have made it difficult for the Qarshouli family to stay in contact with relatives in Gaza, but Susan Qarshouli said the pictures sent to her over limited internet connections showed her gentle, beloved, and respected brother had become a weak, starving man, with skin clinging to the cavities in his skull.

Marcus said Lina often talked about how hungry she and her father were, adding "They were looking for scraps," stating it was impossible to overcome the painful way her uncle died.

He and his mother now hope Lina Qarshouli will be allowed to come to Canada on humanitarian grounds, as she is not eligible for the Canadian visa program alone.

Their lawyer Annie Odell said they submitted the latest paperwork last week. Odell, speaking from her office outside Saint John, New Jersey, said: "It’s a discretionary process so they can easily say no."

But Susan Qarshouli will not lose hope and plans to keep her niece’s room ready.

She said tearfully: "I hope I can bring her here, please." "I have lost my brother, and she is all we have now."