ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has condemned Israel’s recent decisions to expand control over the occupied West Bank while addressing a high-level United Nations Security Council briefing on Palestine in New York, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Israel’s cabinet approved new measures this month tightening administrative and legal control over parts of the West Bank, including easing land purchases by settlers and reclassifying land as “state land,” a move Palestinians and many international observers say deepens settlement expansion and undermines prospects for a two-state solution.

Pakistan, which does not recognize Israel and has consistently supported Palestinian statehood, has also recently joined a multilateral diplomatic framework aimed at stabilizing Gaza following the latest war and ceasefire efforts.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said Dar “strongly condemned Israel’s continued ceasefire violations, illegal settlement activities, and attempts to alter the status of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly its recent illegal decisions and measures to expand control over the Occupied West Bank, including designating of its land as ‘state land’.”

He called for the “immediate halt and reversal” of those actions, according to the statement.

Dar also urged a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2803, which underpins international efforts toward reconstruction and political settlement after months of conflict in the enclave.

The minister said Pakistan joined the Board of Peace — a diplomatic initiative supported by a group of Arab and Islamic countries — to support humanitarian relief and long-term political resolution.

He expressed hope the initiative would lead to “concrete steps” toward a ceasefire, expanded humanitarian aid and eventual realization of Palestinian self-determination through a political process based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s willingness to support diplomatic initiatives including the Board of Peace, a proposed international peace conference and other multilateral efforts aimed at a “just, lasting and comprehensive peace” in the Middle East.