Mahmoud Nasser, a Canadian man in southern Gaza, has revealed that essential supplies are dwindling as situations become more desperate in the area where he is taking shelter while waiting for a border which connects with Egypt to open.

Nasser said he left Gaza with his wife amid Israel’s bombing of the Palestinian territory and is now taking shelter in the southern city of Khan Yunis, where he and 59 other people, including children, are squatting in a home belonging to his wife’s relatives.

Nasser revealed that food and water are being rationed while electricity is scarce and every home in the area is filled with people that have fled northern Gaza ever since Israel ordered a mass evacuation ahead of an expected invasion.

He said he has contacted Canadian embassy staff and is awaiting a call with details on how to evacuate through the nearby Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only way out of Gaza that does not lead into Israel.

Nasser was born in Gaza, immigrated to Canada in 2008, and moved to Gaza from Mississauga, Ont., with his younger brother and wife in 2021 to be closer to his aging father and run a family business.

Canada has been working to evacuate around 300 citizens and their relatives from Gaza after a plan to allow foreign nationals to leave Gaza through the border crossing with Egypt fell through.