Pakistan presses for urgent Gaza ceasefire at OIC panel meeting

Pakistan has again expressed support for the Palestinian people and called on the OIC to press urgently for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, stressing that this is a defining moment for the Muslim Ummah to act now. 

Addressing the session of the OIC Committee of Six on Palestine on Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, said that Pakistan will advance peace in the Middle East as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council 2025-2026.

He said that Israel’s offensive that it launched after October 2023 has left more than 63,000 Palestinians dead and 94,000 wounded, the majority of them are women and children.

He said Israeli forces are systematically targeting “homes, hospitals, schools, aid convoys and shelters” in breach of international law.

The minister stressed that settler violence and military raids in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are intensifying “under an extremist Israeli leadership determined to bury the two-state solution”.

“This is a defining moment for the Middle East and the Muslim world,” he said.

“The momentum generated by the High-Level International Conference on Implementation of the Two-State Solution must be sustained.”

The minister also suggested the OIC press for:

• An immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire.
• Safe, open aid corridors and full backing for UNRWA, the UN agency that keeps millions of Palestinians alive.
• A halt to forced displacement and new Israeli settlements.
• Return of land and property seized since 1967.
• The right of Palestinian refugees to go home.
• Trials for war crimes and payment for damage done.
• Respect for every ICJ ruling.
• A Gaza rebuilding scheme led by Arab and Islamic states.
• A proper international protection force for Palestinians.
• A fully independent State of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem (Al-Quds Al-Sharif) as its capital, and a seat at the United Nations.