Pakistan calls on world to hold Israel accountable for attacks on Gaza hospitals

  • Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch says Pakistan is appalled by Israeli incursion at Al-Shifa hospital
Updated 16 Nov, 2023

Pakistan called on Thursday the international community to hold Israeli occupation accountable for its attacks in Gaza.

At her weekly media briefing, Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan condemns repeated Israeli attacks on the premises and personnel of United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and other humanitarian agencies, including the Headquarters of Qatari Committee for the Reconstruction of Gaza.

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Pakistan also condemns Israel’s war on hospitals, which are being targeted by the occupation forces in complete disregard of international law, she added.

Israeli troops forced their way into Al Shifa hospital in the early hours of Wednesday and spent the day deepening their search, the Israeli army said. An army video showed automatic weapons, grenades, ammunition and flak jackets it said were recovered from an undisclosed building within the complex.

Israel said its forces were operating in and around Gaza’s biggest hospital, a chief objective in its campaign to destroy Palestinian Hamas that the army says stored weapons and ran a command centre in tunnels beneath the buildings.

The FO spokesperson said that Pakistan is appalled by Israeli incursion into Al Shifa hospital, and joins the international community to hold Israeli occupation accountable for its attacks against hospitals.

“By decimating civilian infrastructure and symbols of self-governance, including the legislative council, Israel is deliberately making Gaza uninhabitable for its civilian population,” Baloch said.

Meanwhile, the FO spokesperson welcomed the joint declaration of the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit held in Saudi Arabia that urged the UN Security Council to enforce UN resolutions against Israel.

The declaration demanded for ceasing export of weapons to the occupying force and called for the international Criminal Court’s investigation into Israeli crimes.

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