MM News

NEW YORK: Pakistan has strongly criticized the Israeli aggression in Gaza and demanded deployment of an international protection force in the occupied territories to safeguard the besieged Palestinians.

“We should deploy an international protection force,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) called to discuss Israel’s devastating violence against the Palestinians in Gaza.

The Foreign Minister stressed that the voice of the Palestinian people cannot and will not be silenced. He noted that Israel has mounted a “relentless onslaught” on the people of Palestine, resulting in scores of deaths and limited access to food, water and health services.

“As we speak, people in Palestine are being killed with impunity. Death echoes in every home in Gaza. The enclave is plunged in darkness literally and metaphorically; the only light is of Israeli explosions,” he added.

“This is Palestine, where – in full view of the world – the Israeli airstrikes bring down entire buildings to kill and terrorize innocent Palestinians and even silence the media. It is time to say Enough,” he asserted.

He further said, “It is appalling that the UN Security Council has been unable to exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” noting that the 15-member body had failed even to demand a cessation of hostilities.

“The countries preventing the UN from putting forth a resolution demanding an end to the violence bore a heavy responsibility,” Qureshi said, adding, “We must not fail the Palestinian people at this critical juncture.”

“Let us be clear, there is no more room for military equivalence between the beleaguered and occupied Palestinian people who have no army, no navy and no airforce,” he said, adding, “This is a war between a military occupier and an occupied people.”

Qureshi also called for mobilizing all possible humanitarian help for the devastated Palestinian population in Gaza and other parts of the occupied territories. He urged the Secretary-General to launch a comprehensive humanitarian assistance plan to provide succour and sustenance to the Palestinians.

“We need to send medical teams, medicines and other supplies, food and other necessities to Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territories,” he said, welcoming the access being provided by Egypt to Gaza.

The foreign minister also called on the UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to offer protection to Israel’s Arab citizens who are being lynched and murdered by fascist Israeli gangs at the present time.

“It is only through determined and decisive action that this Assembly can restore the credibility of the United Nations and demonstrate its effective role in preserving world peace and global order based on equity and justice,” he concluded.

Pakistan joins hand with other countries

The foreign minister arrived in New York on Wednesday evening on a Palestine peace mission and to attend the UNGA emergency meeting, called by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League.

Pakistan has joined hands with Palestine, Sudan and Turkey to take a united stance at the UNGA session. Soon after his arrival in New York, Qureshi hosted a working dinner of the foreign ministers of OIC member states to discuss the situation in Palestine.

A statement issued by Pakistan’s UN mission said that the foreign minister’s visit to New York was part of Pakistan’s intensive diplomatic outreach to mobilise international support for ending the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.

Israeli aggression

Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed 230 Palestinians, including 65 children, leaving vast areas in rubble and displacing tens of thousands in the crowded territory.

Meanwhile, Israel’s army has said Hamas and other Islamist armed groups in Gaza have fired 4,070 rockets towards Israel. The rockets have claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child, with one Indian and two Thai nationals among those killed, the police said.