ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, on Wednesday strongly condemned repeated raids by Israeli forces on the Jenin refugee camp in Palestine that has resulted in the killing of multiple Palestinians, demanding the international community take urgent action to stop the “egregious spilling of Palestinian blood.”
The statement came shortly after Israel’s army declared the end of the large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank that killed at least 10 Palestinians over the previous two days. The raid, involving hundreds of forces, drone strikes and armored bulldozers, targeted the northern West Bank city of Jenin, with much of the crowded city left in rubble and at least 3,000 residents displaced.
The massive ground offensive in the densely populated Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin bore hallmarks of the Israeli military’s tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. The assault, involving aerial bombardments and ground incursions through Israeli special forces, has intensified clashes and reignited the sense of Palestinian resistance.
People carry bags with goods given by a local organization as they walk among debris in the aftermath of a military operation in Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2023. (AFP)
Largely made up of camps that were initially set up in the 1950s, Jenin is home to more than 22,000 Palestinians who were expelled from their original homes during the Nakba — the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias to create the State of Israel — in 1948. To Palestinians, the enclave embodies armed resistance against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
“Strongly condemn brutal Israeli raids and airstrikes in Jenin in the occupied West Bank, killing 10 Palestinians and injuring 50,” Bhutto-Zardari wrote in a Twitter post.
“[The] international community must act now to stop this egregious spilling of Palestinian blood. I reiterate my strongest support for legitimate Palestinian cause and struggle.”
The large-scale raid, which began Monday, was one of the most intense military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades and comes amid a more than a yearlong spike in violence. More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, and Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 26 people.
The recent raids came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his ultranationalist political allies for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four people.
A day ago, Pakistan’s foreign office said that the people of Pakistan were “outraged” by Israel’s deliberate targeting of innocent Palestinians and reiterated the South Asian country’s unwavering support for the Palestinian cause and their fundamental right to peacefully live in an independent state.
“We believe the Palestinian people have a right to live peacefully in an independent state of Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital,” Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told Arab News on Tuesday.
