Pakistan on Tuesday reaffirmed its firm solidarity with the Palestinian people, urging the international community to take urgent action for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Addressing the OIC Committee of Six on Palestine, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar condemned Israel’s ongoing assault, launched after October 2023, which has claimed more than 63,000 lives and left 94,000 wounded, most of them women and children. He said Israel’s forces were deliberately targeting homes, hospitals, schools, aid convoys, and shelters in clear violation of international law.
Dar highlighted the alarming rise in settler violence and military raids in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, carried out under what he described as “an extremist Israeli leadership determined to bury the two-state solution.” Stressing that this is a defining moment for the Middle East and the Muslim world, he urged sustaining the momentum generated by the recent High-Level International Conference on the Two-State Solution.
He called on the OIC to press for an unconditional ceasefire, safe and open aid corridors with full support for UNRWA, an end to forced displacement and settlement expansion, and the return of land and property seized since 1967. He further demanded the right of Palestinian refugees to return home, accountability for war crimes, reparations for destruction, and respect for all ICJ rulings. Dar also proposed an Arab-Islamic led Gaza reconstruction programme, deployment of an international protection force for Palestinians, and recognition of a fully independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and full UN membership.
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