ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday welcomed a United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and unrestricted access for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) to deliver aid.
The ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people and injured thousands more since Oct 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas in which Israel says 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
Israel’s 13-month military campaign has displaced an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians, many of them multiple times. Bombings, movement restrictions and evacuations ordered by Israel’s military block access to health care and keep aid workers from reaching people in need, with aid organizations and charities repeatedly warning of crisis-level hunger affecting nearly two million people.
A UN-backed assessment last month warned famine was looming in northern Gaza due to a near-halt in food aid. Essential goods such as water, fresh produce, and medicines are also scarce.
“Pakistan welcomes the UNGA resolution of yesterday demanding an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza and removal of restrictions against UNRWA in its aid operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a weekly briefing on Thursday.
She called for the immediate “cessation of hostilities” in Palestine, an end to Israel’s “genocide,” protection of civilians and infrastructure, humanitarian access for the needy, and full support for UNRWA’s health care activities.
“We also urge the international community to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied territories,” Baloch added.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other multilateral platforms, demanding international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Pakistan has dispatched a total of 1,273 tons of relief items to the war-affected people of Gaza until Nov. 27, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
The South Asian nation does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
