ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar on Wednesday described an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza City that killed some 500 Palestinians on Tuesday as an “indefensible act of inhumanity” and urged the international community to take swift action to end the violence.
The airstrike, the deadliest single incident since Israel launched an unrelenting bombing campaign on the occupied enclave on Oct. 7, took place on the eve of a visit by US President Joe Biden to Israel to show support for the country in its war with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
“Strongly condemn the Israeli attack on Al-Ahly Al-Mamadany Hospital in Gaza, causing immense civilian casualties,” Kakar said on X. “Targeting a hospital, a sanctuary for those in need, is an indefensible act of inhumanity. International humanitarian law give protection to hospitals and medical personnel.”
He said Pakistan demanded “an end to this indiscriminate targeting and urged the international community to act swiftly to stop the violence and hold those responsible accountable.”
In a separate statement, the Pakistani foreign office said attacking a hospital where civilians were seeking shelter and emergency treatment was “inhumane and indefensible.”
“The indiscriminate targeting of civilian population and facilities is a grave violation of international law and constitutes war crimes,” the statement added, calling on the international community to take “urgent measures to bring an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment and siege of Gaza and the impunity with which Israeli authorities have operated in the last few days.”
A Palestinian health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said hundreds were killed in the hospital attack on Tuesday night and rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble. Earlier, a Gaza civil defense chief gave a death toll of 300, while health ministry sources put it at 500.
The incident has inflamed a region already in crisis since Hamas carried out an Oct. 7 cross-border rampage against communities in southern Israel in which at least 1,300 people died.
Before Tuesday’s blast, health authorities in Gaza said at least 3,000 people had died in Israel’s 11-day bombardment that began after the Oct. 7 assault.
