Pakistan calls for ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal in Gaza at UNSC briefing

Pakistan has urged the international community to take urgent and decisive action to end Israel’s ongoing “brutal and illegal” war in Gaza.

Speaking at the UN Security Council briefing on the Middle East, including the Question of Palestine, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, called for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire. He further demanded a full Israeli withdrawal, the release of all hostages, and unimpeded humanitarian access into Gaza.

Ambassador Asim Iftikhar described the recent High-Level Conference on the peaceful resolution of the Palestinian issue and implementation of the Two-State Solution as a timely and welcome step.

However, he asserted that it must be followed by concrete and coordinated international measures to bring about lasting peace and stability in the region.

He reiterated that a durable peace in the Middle East requires a credible political path toward the establishment of a sovereign, viable, and contiguous Palestinian state—based on the pre-1967 borders—with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

An average of 28 children are being killed each day in Gaza amid Israel’s restrictions on the delivery of direly needed humanitarian assistance and a collapse of vital services, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

According to Al Jazeera report, “Death by bombardments. Death by malnutrition and starvation. Death by lack of aid and vital services,” said a post by UNICEF on X. “In Gaza, an average of 28 children a day — the size of a classroom — have been killed.”

The agency stressed that children in Gaza are in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine and protection, adding: “More than anything, they need a ceasefire, NOW.”