Photo of Dr. Rizk Abou Sheira.
This morning The Guardian reports: “An Israeli airstrike on Nasser hospital in southern Gaza killed six people, including a surgeon and a disabled man, and wounded 28 others, according to the hospital director.”
“Among the dead was Rizk Abu Shaira, 52, a general surgeon who had featured in American Doctor, a documentary about doctors operating in Gaza.”
To watch the trailer for American Doctor, click here.
Photo: Dr. Yipeng Ge speaks at a screening of American Doctor at the ByTowne Cinema in Ottawa, September 15, 2026.
The Guardian further reports: “More than 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza, while Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says Israel has detained hundreds of medics since 7 October 2023, with at least 95 still in custody. About 90% of Gaza’s health infrastructure has been destroyed or damage by Israeli bombing, systematic destruction UN experts called ‘medicide’.”
The Dublin-based Front Line Defenders has also documented in their Global Analysis 2023/24 report: “Those defending the right to health and the right to life as doctors, nurses, or ambulance workers, those exposing and documenting war crimes as journalists, and those providing humanitarian support as volunteers or employees of aid agencies were all specifically targeted by Israeli bombs or guns.”
This summer Dr. Kavita Algu told CBC Radio: “I’m a physician, and it’s been really horrible, you know, over these last years watching all of our colleagues being murdered with weapons that are traded right here at CANSEC.”
Photo: Dr. Kavita Algu at the CANSEC arms show in Ottawa, May 28, 2026, where Boeing and Pratt & Whitney are among the exhibitors.
Missile used in attack
This morning, the BBC is reporting: “News agencies also published photos that appeared to show an unexploded missile.”
Palestinian journalist and commentator Abubaker Abed has posted on social media: “Remnants of the bomb discovered after the attack on Nasser Hospital yesterday were identified as a US-made GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). It weighs roughly 250–285 lbs (approx. 70.8 to 77.5 inches long, 7.5 inches wide). It can penetrate over 3 feet of reinforced concrete.”
The US Air Force explains: “The GBU-39B Small Diameter Bomb, or SDB, is an extended range all-weather, day or night 250-pound class, guided munition. The SDB relies on the Global Positioning System to provide navigation to the target.”
It identifies the contractor as Boeing Co.
Photo by Mohammed Al-Amour in Nasser Hospital.
The F-15E Strike Eagle
The US Air Force also notes: “The F-15E Strike Eagle is currently the only aircraft outfitted with the SDB weapon system.”
And it says: “The F-15E is powered by two Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 or 229 engines that incorporate advanced digital technology for improved performance.”
Photo: An F-15E releasing a GBU-28, a 4,000 to 5,000-pound bomb. The GBU-39B Small Diameter Bomb reportedly used in the attack that killed Dr. Rizk Abu Shaira is a 250–285-pound bomb. Photo by U.S. Department of Defense.
Canadian components in warplanes
In December 2023, The Maple reported: “Approximately 200 workers and union members from across the GTA blocked the arrival of the morning shift at the Mississauga plant of military contractor Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) and called on the Canadian government to stop arms exports to Israel.”
That article adds: “PWC is a branch of its American parent company, which itself is a subsidiary of the Virginia-based RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon). In 2015, Pratt & Whitney’s American operation announced it had secured a 15-year contract to service the engines of the Israeli air force’s fleet of F-15 and F-16 fighter jets.”
More F-15s to be built
In December 2025, TWZ reported: “New-build F-15 Eagle fighters are headed to Israel again, with a contract for 25 new F-15IA aircraft placed with Boeing. These will be the first new Eagles that the country has acquired since 1999, when it received the last of its F-15I Ra’am jets and continues the enduring legacy of the F-15 in Israeli Air Force service. …The 25 new F-15IAs will provide the Israeli Air Force with an additional Eagle squadron. This will double the number of strike-optimized F-15s available to the service.”
More components to be exported
In February 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney launched his government’s “Defence Industrial Strategy” that included the pledge to “increase Canada’s defence exports by 50 per cent” and “substantially increase financial support for export promotion efforts to add new Trade Commissioners in the UK and key EU markets and ramp up Canada’s presence at major global defence and aerospace trade shows”.
A few months later, Kelsey Gallagher, a senior researcher at Project Ploughshares, told CBC Radio: “It is most likely that this increase in arms exports by 50%, if realized, will drive arms exports through the path of least resistance, which is to the United States. …The vast majority of Canada’s arms transfers [are] to the United States… There’s no human rights risk assessment. And therefore they’re essentially allowed to be transferred to the U.S. without any regulatory oversight.”
Gallagher added: “There is sometimes a perception that a component or a piece of a wingtip or something like that is not as dangerous as a rifle. …But it should be said that an F-35 cannot conduct an airstrike in Gaza without its constituent components.” The same could be said about an F-15.
Peace Brigades International-Canada recalls the State obligations articulated in Article 6 of the Arms Trade Treaty, to which Canada is a signatory (as of June 2019), that affirm: “A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if it has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a Party.”
We continue to follow this.
Image: The promotion for CANSEC billed as “Canada’s largest defence, security & emerging tech tradeshow where $1B+ in business deals happen every year”.
Photo: Quakers outside the CANSEC arms show on May 27, 2026.
