ISLAMABAD, Friday, November 10, 2023 (WAFA) – Pakistan has expressed its deep concern over the heinous crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, demanding the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to call for an urgent and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza.

In a weekly press briefing, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch said the people of Gaza had been subjected to the worst forms of collective punishment.

“Israeli forces are committing crimes against humanity with impunity,” she stated, lamenting Israel’s indiscriminate massacres of defenseless civilians and deliberate attempts to deprive them of food, water, shelter and medical care.

“The use of phosphorous bombs and threats of nuclear holocausts are being made against people under occupation who are being forcibly evicted from their land,” Baloch pointed out.

While calling the situation in Gaza “a tragedy of epic proportions”, she called on the UNSC, which is expected to meet today to deliberate upon the situation in the Mideast, to take action.

“The UNSC must act to fulfil its responsibility to uphold peace and call for urgent and unconditional ceasefire, lifting of siege and commencement of rapid unhindered humanitarian assistance,” the spokesperson said.

Abettors of Israel, she continued, must prevail upon it to “abandon plans for settler colonialism, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people”.

“As an occupying power, Israel must fulfil its obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention and end its carnage in Gaza,” Baloch added.

M.N