OTTAWA — The federal government will begin to airlift Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their families from Tel Aviv by the end of the week, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said Wednesday. 

Joly would not confirm whether any Canadians are being held hostage in Gaza, where militants are holding an estimated 150 people snatched from Israel, but she said three people are missing. 

“This is a standing approach we take in any hostage negotiation we don’t confirm. Why? Because we don’t want to increase the value of that person in the eyes of their tyrants,” Joly said. 

Global Affairs Canada’s top bureaucrat for consular cases said two Canadians have died and a third is presumed dead. 

The war, sparked after Hamas conducted surprise attacks across the Israeli border from Gaza on Saturday, has already claimed more than 2,200 lives. 

Canadian Armed Forces flights from Tel Aviv to Athens will be scheduled in the coming days, and the federal government says it will help arrange passage on flights from Athens back to Canada. 

“Usually when there are still commercial flights, we don’t do assisted departure,” Joly said. 

“This is quite rare.” 

She said the government felt it needed to step in because so many commercial flights from Israel were cancelled or delayed. 

Chief of the defence staff Gen. Wayne Eyre said Wednesday morning the first Polaris plane would land in Athens within an hour.

Polaris planes will then run a shuttle service between Tel Aviv and Athens, with the frequency of the flights dependent on demand, he said. 

As of Tuesday night, Joly said there were 4,249 Canadians registered in Israel and another 476 in the West Bank and Gaza. 

Officials said a minority of those 476 people are registered in Hamas-controlled Gaza, where Israel is conducting airstrikes in retaliation for the weekend assault. 

Israel has also cut access to water and power in what its officials describe as a total siege. 

Canada lists Hamas as a terrorist group and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asserted that Israel has a right to defend itself. 

Joly said Canada aims to work with the United Nations if there is an evacuation from Gaza. 

“But at this point there has been no information coming from the UN regarding an evacuation,” she said, adding that she has been in touch with her counterpart in Jordan to discuss options for people in the West Bank. 

Officials urged Canadians in the region to register with Global Affairs in order to receive information on the airlift.