DM Monitoring
NEW YORK: Pakistan has described the situation in Gaza as a stain on collective conscience of the humanity, considering the death toll of over 55,000 lives, including 18,000 children and 28,000 women.
Delivering Pakistan’s statement during the resumed Tenth Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on situation in Palestine today, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, said that infrastructure including homes, hospitals, schools, cultural heritage, and places of worship has been razed to the ground with the prospect of famine looming large in Gaza. He said that humanitarian workers and UN personnel are being attacked with impunity.
“This is not just a humanitarian catastrophe; it is a collapse of humanity,” he emphasized.
The Pakistan UN ambassador said that the stakes could not be higher, and urged the international community to not look away.
“The credibility of the international system — of multilateralism itself — is on trial, and that it is ludicrous that the occupying power, the worst violator of international law and those who protect and shield it, can stand in this August Assembly, criticizing and blaming the rest of the international community for being on the right side of history,” he stressed.
Ambassador Asim said that moral bankruptcy must have no space in this house and highlighted the need for rising above politics and pressure, and acting with moral clarity, legal integrity, and political will. He said that in such moments, the responsibility of this General Assembly — the most representative and democratic organ of the United Nations — has increased, adding that it must speak where the Council was prevented from acting.
Referring to the resolution adopted by the General Assembly last week entitled, “Protection of civilians and upholding legal and humanitarian obligations,” he said that it was a necessary assertion of international will, arguing that Pakistan is proud to have supported and co-sponsored this initiative.
He said that the resolution called for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire; release of hostages; condemned the weaponization of starvation; demanded unimpeded humanitarian access; and insisted on accountability and compliance with international law.
He said that the resolution recalled that this is a situation of illegal occupation, and reiterated the obligations of Israel, the occupying power under international law.
He asked the international community to act with urgency to ensure the implementation the implementation of obligations.
Reiterating Pakistan’s demands, Ambassador Asim said, Pakistan demanded an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, urging full implementation of Resolution 2735.
He said Pakistan called for the complete lifting of the Gaza blockade to allow unrestricted humanitarian aid.
It stresses full restoration of UNRWA’s role, access, and funding, rejecting efforts to delegitimize it.
Pakistan also “emphasizes ending Israel’s illegal occupation and realizing a two-state solution with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds as Palestine’s capital”.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that Pakistan looked forward to the convening of the High-level Conference on Palestine and the two-state solution in coming weeks, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.
“We must work together to ensure its tangible outcomes in advancing a credible path toward durable peace, Palestinian statehood and its full membership of the United Nations. It will be yet another clear demonstration of where the international community stands on this issue,” he added.
