ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal cabinet on Wednesday demanded Israel immediately cease its bombardment of the besieged Gaza strip, state-run Radio Pakistan said, as casualties mounted amid an escalation of hostilities in the Middle East.
Israeli jets pounded several targets throughout the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday night and Wednesday after Hamas’ surprise attack against the Jewish state over the weekend.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, over 1,000 people have been killed and more than 5,000 injured since Saturday. Israel says at least 1,200 were killed in the Hamas raid.
Israel has put Gaza under “total siege” to stop food and fuel reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid. Hamas media said on Wednesday electricity went out after the only power station stopped working.
“The Caretaker Federal Cabinet has demanded immediate cessation of bombardment in Gaza and ending of illegal siege of the territory, allowing international assistance to reach victims,” Radio Pakistan said in a report.
The announcement followed a meeting of the federal cabinet chaired by Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar in which the Middle East crisis was discussed and the cabinet strongly condemned Israel’s bombardment and expressed “serious concerns” about the shortage of food and water in Gaza.
“The Information Minister [Murtaza Solangi] said the cabinet unanimously emphasized that recent tension is a result of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories for the last two decades,” the report said.
The cabinet reiterated its position that a separate homeland for the Palestinians, based on pre-1967 borders as per UN resolutions, was the only solution to the crisis.
Separately, hundreds of protesters marched across Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad, on Wednesday to denounce Israeli actions against Palestinians.
Pakistani cabinet demands ‘immediate cessation’ of Israeli bombing of Gaza
https://arab.news/6yjzt
Pakistani cabinet demands ‘immediate cessation’ of Israeli bombing of Gaza
- Israeli jets pounded Gaza on Tuesday night and Wednesday, killing over 1,000 according to Palestinian health ministry
- Pakistan does not recognize Israel, demands separate homeland for Palestinians based on pre-1967 borders
Four people, including two policemen, killed in twin blasts in northwest Pakistan
- Attack on police van in South Waziristan and motorbike-mounted IED in Lakki Marwat hits KP province
- Violence comes amid a surge in militancy and cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: At least four people, including two policemen, were killed and about 20 others wounded in two separate blasts in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Saturday, officials said, the latest violence in a region grappling with militant violence.
One explosion targeted a police patrol van in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan district near the Afghan border, while another blast caused by explosives mounted on a motorbike struck a market area in Lakki Marwat district, according to police officials and preliminary reports.
The incidents come amid rising militant violence in Pakistan’s northwest, where authorities say armed groups operate from across the border in Afghanistan, straining relations between Islamabad and the Taliban administration in Kabul, with both sides engaged in a military conflict since last month.
“The control room received information in the evening about a bomb blast targeting a police van in Wana Bazaar,” a police official in the area, who did not want to be named, confirmed while speaking to Arab News over the phone.
He confirmed two deaths in the incident while saying more than 25 people had been injured.
The official said rescue teams responded promptly and shifted three seriously injured people to a nearby hospital in Wana.
In another incident during the day in Lakki Marwat, an improvised explosive device attached to a motorbike exploded near shops.
“Two people have been killed and about 10 have been injured in an IED blast in Lakki Marwat,” Raza Khan, Deputy Superintendent of Police in Bannu, told Arab News.
“The deceased are identified as Shoaib Ur Rehman and Furqan Ullah,” he added. “Shoaib, the owner of the shop, was the brother of the Lakki peace committee head.”
Peace committees in the region are informal, community-based groups that work with security forces to report militant activity and maintain order, making their members frequent targets of attacks.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attacks and expressed grief over the incidents.
“I strongly condemn the blast near a police patrolling vehicle in Wana Bazaar,” Naqvi said in a statement, confirming the killing of four people, including two police personnel.
“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police are on the front line in the war against terrorism,” he said, noting the force had made “unforgettable sacrifices” in the fight against militant groups.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan’s border regions in recent months, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan territory — a charge Kabul denies — as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors have escalated.
