ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reiterated Pakistan’s stance that the establishment of a strong and viable Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders and Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital remains the bedrock of Pakistan’s Middle East policy and would continue to be so.
“The Palestinian people’s freedom, dignity and prosperity remain a primary concern for Pakistan. InshaAllah, the establishment of a strong and viable Palestinian state with pre-1967 borders and Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital remains the bedrock of Pakistan’s Middle East policy and will remain so,” the prime minister wrote on his X handle while on his way home after attending the Gaza Peace Summit held in Sharm El Sheikh.
Talking about achievement made at the event, the prime minister said that the most important priority for Pakistan was the immediate cessation of the genocidal campaign imposed on Gaza.
He said that Pakistan was deeply involved in the process and that, along with other brotherly nations, its priority was stated and reinforced consistently.
Shehbaz said that Pakistan’s gratitude to Trump was anchored in his promise that he would make it stop, and delivering on that promise. “We will continue to express our admiration for President Trump’s unique contribution to peace,” he said.
The prime minister once again announced to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize on the occasion to recognise his contributions to world peace.
Meanwhile, Israel delayed aid into Gaza and kept the enclave’s border shut on Tuesday, while re-emergent Hamas fighters demonstrated their grip by executing men in the street, darkening the outlook for US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war.
Three Israeli officials said Israel had decided to restrict aid into the shattered Gaza Strip and delay plans to open the border crossing to Egypt at least through Wednesday, because Hamas had been too slow to turn over bodies of dead hostages. The militant group has said locating the bodies is difficult.
Meanwhile, Hamas has swiftly reclaimed the streets of Gaza’s urban areas, following the partial withdrawal of Israeli troops last week. In a video circulated late on Monday, Hamas fighters dragged seven men with hands tied behind their backs into a Gaza City square, forced them to their knees and shot them from behind, as dozens of onlookers watched from nearby shopfronts.
A Hamas source confirmed that the video was filmed on Monday and that Hamas fighters participated in the executions. Reuters was able to confirm the location by visible geographic features.
Trump has given his blessing to Hamas to reassert some control of Gaza, at least temporarily. Israeli officials, who say any final settlement must permanently disarm Hamas, have so far refrained from commenting publicly on the reemergence of the group’s fighters. Trump said on Tuesday “we will disarm” Hamas if the Palestinian militants refuse to do it themselves, adding that it could be done violently if needed. “If they don´t disarm, we will disarm them,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “And it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”
On Monday the US president proclaimed the “historic dawn of a new Middle East” to Israel’s parliament, as Israel and Hamas were exchanging the last 20 living Israeli hostages in Gaza for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners. But so far, Hamas has handed over only four coffins of dead hostages, leaving at least 23 presumed dead and one unaccounted for, still in Gaza. The group informed mediators that it will begin transferring a further four bodies to Israel from 1900 GMT on Tuesday, an official involved in the operation told Reuters. Aid trucks have yet to be permitted to enter Gaza at the full anticipated rate of hundreds per day, and plans have yet to be implemented to open the crossing to Egypt to let some Gazans out, initially to evacuate the wounded for medical treatment.
The highly public return of Hamas to control of Gaza’s streets demonstrates the hurdles to progressing from the initial ceasefire -- phase one of Trump’s plan -- to a permanent settlement that would prevent a new eruption of fighting.
Meanwhile, Israeli drone fire killed five people as they went to check on houses in a suburb east of Gaza City and an airstrike killed one person and injured another near Khan Younis, Gaza health authorities said.
Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire. The Israeli military said it had fired on people who crossed truce lines and approached its forces after ignoring calls to turn back.
A summit co-hosted by Trump in Egypt on Monday ended with no public announcement of major progress towards establishing an international military force for Gaza, or a new governing body.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently maintained that the war cannot end until Hamas gives up its weapons and ceases to control Gaza, a demand that the fighters have rejected, torpedoing all previous peace efforts. But Trump, having announced that the war is now over, said on Monday Hamas still had a temporary green light to keep order. “They do want to stop the problems, and they’ve been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time,” he said. Hamas sources told Reuters on Tuesday the group would tolerate no more violations of order in Gaza and would target collaborators, armed looters and drug dealers. Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram said that while aid was getting into Gaza with tents, tarpaulin sheets, winter clothes, family hygiene kits and other critical items, she hoped for a significant increase later this week.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said later on Tuesday that the remains of four more hostages were transferred to the Red Cross in Gaza, AFP reported. “According to information provided by the Red Cross, four coffins of deceased hostages have been transferred into their custody and are on their way to IDF (military) and ISA (security agency) forces in the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement.