Pakistan calls for deployment of int'l protection force in Gaza at UN

Denouncing Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza, Pakistan has called on the United Nations Security Council to end the Israeli aggression by taking enforcement steps including the deployment of an international protection force to save the besieged Palestinians in the battered enclave.

“Any attempt to sever Gaza from the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory is a direct attack on the very foundation of the Two-State vision,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told an emergency meeting of the 15-member body on the Israeli government’s approval of a plan to expand the war by taking control of Gaza City.

“Gaza is, and will remain an inseparable part of the State of Palestine,” he told delegates. “We are convinced that justice is unstoppable- that the resilience of the Palestinian people, and the universal call for their rights, will ultimately overcome oppression,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding, “And let me also categorically state that decisions for governance and their future are for the Palestinians and Palestinians alone to make. “No one else can decide for them,” he asserted.

Citing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent affirmation that “the root cause of this ongoing tragedy is Israel’s prolonged, illegal occupation of Palestinian territory”, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said, “this Council must urgently demand Israel, under Chapter VII of the UN Charter (Enforcement), to refrain from its stated plan of occupying Gaza city.”

This move, Pakistani envoy said, aims at erasing Palestinian presence, and will also extinguish prospects for peace, and undermine all regional and international efforts to peacefully resolve this conflict, highlighting that it is the culmination of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

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The Israeli plans violates all UN Security Council resolutions on the Middle east, threatens mass displacement of over a million Palestinians — a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and follows a clear pattern: sustained bombardment, killing and maiming of thousands, destruction of an entire infrastructure, dismantling of humanitarian systems, forced starvation and displacement — all culminating in occupation under the pretext of “security.”

“Those shielding Israel from accountability — through political cover, military support, or diplomatic protection — are complicit, and must share responsibility,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar said, stressing that Tel Aviv’s allies “must reconsider their policies, for history will judge them harshly”.