ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called on the U.N. Security Council to demand that Israel immediately halt its military attacks in Gaza and push for an “indefinite and continuous” ceasefire in the besieged enclave so as to restore humanitarian access.
Speaking during a debate on the humanitarian situation in Gaza in the 15-member Council, Ambassador Munir Akram highlighted that over 90% of Gaza’s population faces starvation due to Israel’s blockade, with newborn babies are dying.
“Civilian structures – hospitals, schools, and mosques – are being destroyed on the pretext of targeting combatants, and every principle of international law, including international humanitarian law, has been violated”, Ambassador Akram said in his last statement to the Council as he completes his term on March 30.
“But”, he said, “Israel has vowed to continue the slaughter irrespective of its consequences for Palestinian civilians. It is doing so with impunity – knowing well that the world, and this Council, will be deterred from taking any action to enforce its resolutions calling for a ceasefire and an end to the mounting atrocities.”
“Daily military raids, settler violence and illegal land annexations are part of a systematic effort to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people in the West Bank,” the Pakistani envoy said.
“The Security Council, and the world community, cannot sit back and watch this ongoing ethnic cleansing,” Ambassador Akram said.
“A failure to halt this brutal war will unleash the worst instinct of powerful and predatory States,” he said, urging the elected Council members to initiate measures to end “this cruel war”.
The 10 elected members on the Council are: Algeria, Guyana, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia
Denouncing the Israeli blockade of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, he underscored the need for providing full access to the UN and other humanitarian agencies and organizations to meet the needs of suffering people.
He said that Gaza genocide is now being extended to the West Ban, with Israel’s large-scale military operations, which began in Jenin and other areas of the northern West Bank on 21 January 2025, have expanded to Nur Shams, Tulkarm and Jenin Camps, causing the largest population displacement since 1967.
