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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan today (Thursday) has asserted that the world public opinion for Palestine was increasingly changing, adding that Israel would soon fall under pressure of the global powers to grant equal rights to the oppressed Palestinian people.
“I am seeing a welcoming change. The world’s public opinion is changing. This is for the first time that the voices were raised from there. Their newspapers criticized it. Their media spoke against it,” PM Imran said in his televised message to the nation on Palestine situation.
Recalling his time in the West, the Prime Minister pointed out that he never saw their newspapers, media and politicians criticizing Israel as the country had already been attacking Palestinians. “They all used to portray Israel as victim,” he added.
“The social media was the major reason behind that change of world’s public opinion which disseminates all the information which the mainstream media censors,” he added.
“A day will come when Palestinians will get their own country, a just settlement and they will be able to live as equal citizens,” said the Prime Minister.
The premier also paid gratitude to the countrymen who took to streets in huge number to support the Palestinians and condemn the Israeli aggression. “Since the creation of Israel, Pakistan remained stick to Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s stance that it was an injustice to the Palestinian people,” he noted.
Referring to the recent wave of Israeli aggression, the prime minister said the Palestinian families were evicted from their homes and the attack by the “world’s most powerful army” also left the Palestinian children killed.
He said while being in Saudi Arabia, he met the OIC Secretary General and called for OIC’s stand as well as taking the matter to the United Nations. “I also talked to Saudi King Salman, received calls from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who called for taking the matter to the world body,” he pointed out.
“I then tasked Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to go to the UN General Assembly and raise this issue along with the OIC and other Muslim countries and he raised it in a very concentrated manner and I praise him for that,” he concluded.
Ceasefire agreement reached
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force early on Friday after 11 days of deadly fighting that pounded the Palestinian enclave and forced countless Israelis to seek shelter from rockets.
Celebrations were heard on Gaza streets in the minutes after the truce began as cars honked their horns and some guns were fired in the air, while in the occupied West Bank, joyful crowds also took to the streets.
US President Joe Biden welcomed the deal. “I believe we have a genuine opportunity to make progress and I’m committed to working toward it,” Biden said at the White House, hailing Egypt’s role in brokering the agreement.
Israeli strikes
Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed 232 Palestinians, including 65 children, and have wounded another 1,900. Vast areas have been reduced to rubble and some 120,000 people have been displaced. On the Israeli side, 12 people, including two children, have died.
The violence was triggered after police action at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Ramadan fasting month.
