ISLAMABAD: Condemning Israel’s barbarity on Palestinians, Pakistan on Friday urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to call for an “urgent and unconditional ceasefire” in Gaza. In a weekly press briefing, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said Israel should abide by the forth Geneva Convention.
She said the four-hour sporadic tactical pause in the war as announced the United States would not help distribute aid among the Palestinians. “The step is inadequate and we demand ceasefire,” she added.
On Oct 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza and killed 1,400 Israelis, according to officials, and took more than 200 Israelis hostage. In retaliation, Israel blockaded the strip and launched a brutal assault, killing more than 10,800 Palestinians, mostly children. Hundreds of thousands of people have also been forced to flee their homes and move toward the south.
While the death toll mounts and thousands of civilians remain at risk in Gaza, Israel repeatedly refused calls for a ceasefire. On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to daily four-hour “military pauses” in the north of the enclave for humanitarian purposes.
“Israeli forces are committing crimes against humanity with impunity,” Ms Baloch stated, lamenting Israel’s indiscriminate massacres of civilians and deliberate attempts to deprive them of food, water, shelter and medical care.
“The use of phosphorous bombs and threats of nuclear holocausts are being made against people under occupation who are being forcibly evicted from their land,” Baloch pointed out.
While calling the situation in Gaza “a tragedy of epic proportions”, she called on the UNSC — which is expected to meet on Friday to deliberate upon the situation — to take action.
“The UNSC must act to fulfil its responsibility to uphold peace and call for urgent and unconditional ceasefire, lifting of siege and commencement of rapid unhindered humanitarian assistance,” the spokesperson said.
Abettors of Israel, she continued, must prevail upon it to “abandon plans for settler colonialism, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.
“As an occupying power, Israel must fulfil its obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention and end its carnage in Gaza,” Baloch added.
The spokesperson clarified that Pakistan’s position on Israel was clear. “We have no relations or economic ties with Israel,” she asserted.
She stated that caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar will attend an extraordinary session of the OIC that will take place on Nov 11 in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
