Family reunited in Ottawa after being separated amid strife in Gaza

An Ottawa woman who fled to Canada from Gaza as a refugee almost two years ago says the nightmare of beingseparated from her familyhas come to an end.

Jihan Qunoo, her husband and three daughters landed at Ottawa International Airport on Fridayafter reuniting two weeks earlier in Cairo.

The Egypt reunionwas the first time they'dall been together since July2019. The family will now settle in the nation's capital as they wait for theirpermanent resident applications to beprocessed.

"I have been trying the last two years, I mean, to bring them here," said Qunoo.

"So I feel like it's a dream."

Greeted by supporters

A group of supporters gathered at the arrivals hall and cheered as they welcomed the Palestinian family, who were decked out in hats and flags adorned with the red maple leaf.

"They made our day. We [felt] like we are coming home. We are not coming to a new country," said Qunoo.

The family's arrival in Canada ended a long ordeal that hit a crisis point when violence broke out between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza last month.

As Israeli airstrikes bombarded the enclave where her family lived, Qunoo was half the world away in Ottawa.

She had applied to bring her three children to Canada, butdelays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a backlog of applications slowed the process.

The violence caused Qunoo to fear for the safety of her girls,agessix, 10, and 12.She madea desperate plea to immigration officialsto get them out of Gaza and attempted to deliver a petition signed by 25,000 people to the offices of the prime minister and the minister of immigration, refugeesand citizenship.

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Just as Qunoo began losing hope, officialsapproved temporary resident permitsfor herchildren and her husband, granting them permission to live inCanada as they waited for adecision on their permanent residency.

'Tears of happiness'

Qunoo has said that she and her family had been the target of threats by the Hamas government in Gaza because ofher work as the senior financialofficer for a non-profit funded throughAmerican agencyUSAid.

She told CBC News that seeing her daughters for the first time in two years in Cairo and knowing they would soon join her in Canada was a "wonderful feeling."

"Our tears of happinesswere not willing to stop,"she said.

Qunoo said her children will need time to adjust to their newsurroundings. But she's looking forward to showing them around the city, once they've completed their mandatory two-week quarantine.

"We feel safe now," she said."Gaza's [an] unsafe place and it's such[an] unhealthy environment for my kids. But now they can start their new life."