Pakistan calls for ceasefire at OIC moot on Gaza massacre

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has urged the international community to take immediate measures to end the massacre in Gaza being conducted by Israeli forces, ARY News reported on Sunday.

Addressing media after the virtual emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Sunday, the foreign minister urged the international community to immediately swing into action and stop Israeli atrocities against the civilian population in Gaza.

“Israeli forces continuously targeting innocent civilians including children, women and elders in Palestine. Pakistan will raise voice for oppressed Palestinians at every international forum,” the Qureshi added.

“Ceasefire is our priority,” says Qureshi after the OIC meeting on Palestine and reaffirmed Pakistan’s abiding support for the Palestinian people in their just struggle to secure legitimate rights, particularly their inalienable right to self-determination.

While addressing the virtual emergency meeting of the OIC today, Qureshi urged the international community to protect Palestinians against blatant use of force and flagrant violations of human rights by Israel.

He urged the world community to urgently intervene to stop Israeli atrocities against the civilian population in Gaza adding that the bombardment in Gaza must be stopped forthwith.

Shah Mahmood said that the prime minister has discussed the matter with King Salman bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestine’s President Mahmoud Abbas over the situation.

While expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, he said they are valiantly fighting for their legitimate rights.

The minister said Israel’s crimes against humanity should not escape accountability and there should be no impunity for Israel’s violation of international law and the various human rights treaties.

It is pertinent to mention here that Israel continued with its deadly bombing on Sunday, as the death toll of Palestinians in Gaza surged past 170, with more than 30 children and scores of other women martyred in the bombings as well.

A day earlier, 10 members of a single extended family were martyred in an Israeli air strike early Saturday on the western Gaza Strip, medics in the Palestinian enclave said.