Surge responders bring dedication, teamwork and special skills to assist in Israel, West Bank and Gaza consular emergency response

Following the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel on the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023, there was an immediate increase of calls and emails to Global Affairs Canada (GAC) from distressed Canadians. Those responding included Canadian officials in the region and consular officers, as well as people working in divisions across the department’s headquarters in Ottawa, who come forward to work in the department’s 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre (EWRC) when there is a crisis, in addition to their regular jobs. In the EWRC, they respond to Canadians abroad looking for assistance, as well as concerned family members and friends at home.

Soon after the crisis began early on that Thanksgiving weekend, the dire situation would require the assistance of these dedicated staff members. While many people across Canada were sitting down to turkey suppers, they were beginning to report for shifts in an emergency contact centre that had been activated to deal with the rising volume of calls, emails and messages to the EWRC. The tireless efforts of 231 surge responders would continue for more than 3 full months to support Canadians citizens, permanent residents and family members affected by the emergency.

“We feel like we are definitely helping people,” says Pascale Fadel, a computer engineer at GAC who worked 14 hours on Thanksgiving Day, Monday, October 9, and remained part of the surge response until January 11, 2024. Fadel’s day job involves assisting divisions across the department with their information-technology needs, but when she finished work most days, she did another 8-hour shift in the EWRC, in addition to taking some EWRC shifts on the weekend. There, her years of experience on the surge responder roster and the fact that she speaks Arabic proved invaluable. There was also a Hebrew speaker among the surge responders.

Aline Bou-Hanna, who joined Fadel in the EWRC starting on October 9, says that in hearing news of a major crisis abroad, “you can anticipate that you will receive a call or email requesting your surge capacity.” She is a program officer in the development branch responsible for multilateral programming around the world. Meanwhile, she’s helped in 5 crises since beginning work at GAC in 2019. Bou-Hanna, who also speaks Arabic, says surge responders “are the first point of contact for affected persons and are critical to ensuring that Canada can help in a timely manner.”

“Hit the ground running”

The shifts in the EWRC early in the crisis involved securing the assisted departure of people in Israel who faced an indiscriminate barrage of rockets from Hamas and other militant groups. Surge responder Hamza Fahamoe says it’s important to “hit the ground running” as such situations unfold. He first joined the EWRC roster in January 2020, while working as an international development officer for Ghana. At that time he helped for a few days with the crisis related to the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. Then he returned for a long stint when the pandemic was declared in March that year. He helped stranded travellers return home to Canada, particularly focused on India. Fahamoe prefers to work the overnight shift in the EWRC, midnight to 8 am; he then heads straight to his job. During the crisis in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, this involved doing language training during the day to prepare for an upcoming posting to Japan as a trade commissioner.

Lena Khalifa joined the surge responders after appeals went out for more people to help, given events in the region. “It was intense from the get-go,” says Khalifa, who also speaks Arabic. She notes that surge-responder duties differed considerably from the regular job she’d only started months before, helping plan Canada’s participation in the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Japan. However, “some skills are transferable,” she says, including organization and problem-solving, while experienced surge responders are happy to show rookies the ropes.

Surge responders say they’re motivated to take on the role because of its hands-on nature and the ability to make a difference. Bou-Hanna has a “passion for helping others” and finds it especially fulfilling to be able to reunite families. Fadel first signed up just after she started working as an information technology business analyst in 2010 and saw a call for staff members to assist with the response to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the coast of Japan. She put her name forward and was hooked after a night answering calls from Canadians in the region. “In information technology there’s urgency, but the work doesn’t directly involve saving lives,” she explains.

Khalifa likes the fact that members of the team have different skills and levels of seniority in the department. “You all work on similar items,” she says, noting that collaboration is critical with complex cases. “When we’re in the EWRC, we’re equals,” adds Bou-Hanna. “We’re there to support each other.” Fahamoe appreciates the difference the team collectively makes in helping people leave vulnerable situations. “Even if we can get 1 person out, that’s 1 life we saved.”

Significant pressures

Martine Brunet, Deputy Director of Emergency Operations at GAC, who oversees the emergency contact centre in times of crisis, says that in this emergency, the job of the surge responders became more challenging when the task changed from helping people in Israel—with assisted departures carried out by 19 Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) flights—to assisting people in Gaza, where the conflict made those departures particularly complex.

“There were horrible stories; you could receive a call and the person would explain they’d lost their whole family, and the question was, ‘When can I leave?’ You could hear the desperation,” Brunet explains. In such cases it can be reassuring for callers to know “you’re in our system, we have you, and once we have more information, you will hear back from us,” she says. Sometimes, surge responders can make an immediate difference in ways other than helping people leave. For instance, they can connect callers with family members in Canada whom they’ve had trouble reaching.

The crisis generated significant pressures. “Some people are crying on the phone; many of them are in extreme distress,” Fadel says, noting that those who call the centre on a regular basis “become like family.”

Coming from different teams at GAC, the surge responders supporting the EWRC during a crisis develop connections with each other, sharing food, providing relationship advice and sometimes getting together outside the office. Fadel’s own family meanwhile sees less of her during crises, with kids who are 9, 12 and 14. “I’m a mom after all, but my husband is a very good support,” she says.

Khalifa appreciates that as a young professional, she was able to work the long hours to help Canadians. “You have to forgo anything that’s not your day job or the crisis response; your goal is eating and sleeping after you’re done.” She typically worked the shift from midnight to the morning and then did her regular work. “You become nocturnal.” The urgency of the position brings helpful adrenaline rushes, especially with periodic successes. “When you see someone cross the border to safety, it’s like a dopamine hit. It encourages you to keep on going because you see the result,” she says. “Whenever we’d see a really big family all get across, it was a peak moment of joy.”

In challenging times, there was an effort to ensure the “surge responders were okay,” she says. “The phone calls can get difficult, especially when you’re trying to help and something doesn’t go right.” This can bring mood swings, exacerbated by tension and fatigue. “It’s important to have some work-life balance,” adds Khalifa, who is now employed in the EWRC as a member of the Standing Emergency Response Team, which prepares for and manages crises.

Difficult but tangible

Anita Cule, who manages the surge responders as head of the resilience unit in the emergency operations section and becomes logistics lead during a crisis, says that “while the calls can be difficult, you’re helping, and it’s tangible.” She says some surge responders “send me emails thanking me” after their shifts. “They all really genuinely care.” Cule joined GAC in information management in 2002 and became a surge responder herself in 2006, during the massive evacuation from Lebanon. In 2011, she moved to her current job, which was created following the Haiti earthquake and the Arab Spring uprisings in an effort to create “a more structured approach to responding to crises.”

Gabriel Carrier, an emergency response officer in the EWRC who becomes an emergency contact centre manager during crises, first came there as a student intern just before the COVID-19 pandemic. He provides support to the surge responders, training them on the telephone, email and consular case-management systems they use.

“These people are super passionate; the camaraderie we build between us is outstanding,” he says, noting that there can be 50 or more surge responders working together in the “crunch period” early in an emergency. The job brings “a sense that you made a direct impact on somebody’s life,” he comments. “A lot of people like the rush of working hard and having to think quickly on their feet if there’s a problem.” The situation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza brought a “double crisis,” Carrier points out, with evacuations from both Israel and Gaza. “It didn’t stop.”

There were moments of elation for the team. With the assisted departures from Israel between October 12 and 23, the surge responders were buoyed by being able to help 1,661 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their eligible family members get safely out of the country on the CAF flights, says Fadel. “When people are under stress, you feel relieved that you can help them.”

Canada also successfully assisted 79 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their eligible family members to leave the West Bank between October 16 and November 16.

By mid-November, the surge responders were uplifted to hear the news that evacuees from Gaza could go through the Rafah border into Egypt. “We were all shouting, ‘It’s happening! We are moving!’” recalls Fahamoe. It was gratifying to be able to contact people who’d been approved to leave Gaza with their crossing details, he remembers. “That really got us excited.”

Professional and personal relationships

Fahamoe worked as a surge responder through much of the Christmas holidays, and while he wasn’t scheduled to be in the EWRC on New Year’s Eve, he went in to mark midnight with those on duty. “We had our countdown there,” he says.

People get to know each other well working around the clock, Carrier points out. “We build great professional and personal relationships in the EWRC.” After each crisis his team looks at “what we could have done better.” The evacuations brought extraordinary demands, but “there’s always something to learn,” including unforeseen challenges that can offer lessons for the future, he adds. “That’s just the nature of crisis management.”

Bou-Hanna says it’s “fulfilling to know that you’ve contributed to supporting Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their families abroad.” The ideal surge responder is someone who’s “100% driven to go above and beyond to help individuals; who’s resilient and compassionate; who can bounce back from a difficult situation; and who’s a good team player,” she says. “We’re all there working toward the same goal.”

Fadel was happy to leave the EWRC after her last shift in January. While Canada continues to make considerable efforts to secure the departure of Canadian family members from Gaza, the situation can be handled by the country’s officials in the region and EWRC operations staff at headquarters. Fadel meanwhile says that she is “always ready to help with the next crisis” as a surge responder. “If they need me, I’m going to be there for them, for sure.”