ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has condemned Israel’s deliberate targeting of hospitals in Gaza and described its announcement of taking control of the entire territory as a “grave threat” to regional peace, the Pakistani Foreign Office said on Tuesday.

Israeli airstrikes last week hit Gaza’s European and Nasser hospitals, causing casualties and crippling medical services. Days later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel would take full control of the Gaza Strip.

Israel began pounding Gaza after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking over 200 others as hostages. In response, Israel’s military campaign has so far killed around 53,000 Palestinians and displaced nearly all of Gaza’s two million residents.

“The expansion of Israeli ground operations in Gaza as well as its announcement to ‘take control of all’ of Gaza poses a grave threat to efforts aimed toward achieving peace and stability in the region,” Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said. 

“Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the continued Israeli aggression in Gaza as well as deliberate targeting of hospitals and other critical infrastructure along with mass evacuation orders.”

The statement said Israel continued to obstruct humanitarian aid from reaching millions, amounting to an “imposition of collective punishment” on the Palestinian people.

It highlighted UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ statement in which he voiced alarm over the situation in Gaza, where one in every five people faces starvation and the rest of the population is at risk of famine.

Pakistan’s Foreign Office urged the world to call for an immediate end to Israeli atrocities and take steps for the provision of humanitarian supplies to Palestinians.

“Furthermore, Pakistan reiterates its unequivocal opposition to any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their ancestral lands, expand illegal Israeli settlements or to annex any part of the territory,” it said.