-Pakistan denounces killing of Palestinians, terms Israeli act as terrorism, barbarism
GAZA/ISLAMABAD: The death toll from escalating violence in Gaza rose to 29 on Sunday, as well as the killing of a senior commander of a Palestinian armed group, as Israel extended its bombardment of the territory for a second consecutive day.
In a statement Sunday, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement (PIJ) confirmed the killing of one of its senior armed commanders in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip.
“Al-Quds Brigades (Jerusalem Brigades) mourns the leader Khaled Mansour, member of the security council and the commander of the southern region (of Gaza Strip) who was martyred as a result of an Israeli air strike Saturday,” the group said in the statement.
Meanwhile, the updated count from health authorities in the Hamas-run territory said six children were among those killed since the start of the “Israeli aggression” on Friday, in addition to 204 people injured.
But Israel said it had “irrefutable” evidence that a stray rocket from militants had been responsible for the death of multiple children in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Saturday.
Israel’s military has warned its aerial and artillery campaign against the Palestinian armed group could last a week, but Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo is talking “around the clock” with both sides to ease the violence.
Israel has said it was necessary to launch a “pre-emptive” operation against the group as it was planning an imminent attack following days of tensions along the border with Gaza.
In Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt, women and children were trapped under rubble following an Israeli strike, the strip’s civil defence unit said.
Daily life in the strip has come to a standstill, while the electricity distributor said the sole power station shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings.
Gaza’s health ministry said the next few hours will be “crucial and difficult”, warning it risked suspending vital services within 72 hours as a result of the lack of electricity.
The UN humanitarian chief for the occupied Palestinian territories, Lynn Hastings, urged the warring sides to allow “fuel, food, and medical supplies” to be delivered to Gaza amid the worsening crisis.
On Friday, the health ministry reported “a five-year-old girl” was among those killed by Israeli fire.
The girl, Alaa Kaddum, had a pink bow in her hair and a wound on her forehead, as her body was carried by her father at her funeral.
The Gaza strikes follow the arrest in the occupied West Bank of two senior members of Palestinian armed group, including Bassem al-Saadi, whom Israel accuses of orchestrating recent attacks.
Israel has conducted a wave of often deadly raids in the West Bank since mid-March in response to alleged lethal attacks on Israelis.
Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas, but often acts independently. Both are blacklisted as terrorist organisations by much of the West.
Hamas has fought four wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, including the conflict last May.
A flare-up with Islamic Jihad came in 2019, following Israel’s killing of Baha Abu al-Ata, Jabari’s predecessor. Hamas did not join the fray in that conflict.
Hamas’s moves now could prove crucial, with the group facing pressure from some to restore calm in order to improve economic conditions in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Saturday said that Pakistan strongly condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in which ten Palestinians, including a 5-year-old girl, were martyred.
On his Twitter handle, the prime minister said if impunity and barbarism had a face, it would have been that of Israel, which had targeted Palestinians without any care for the consequences.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherry Rehman strongly condemned the “indiscriminate Israeli aggression”.
Pakistan had on Saturday strongly condemned airstrikes by Israel on Gaza that resulted in injuries and deaths of Palestinians, including a five-year-old girl.
Censuring the attacks, the Foreign Office had said the latest spate of aggression was “typical of the Israeli atrocities, illegal actions and indiscriminate use of force against innocent Palestinians over the decades in complete defiance of international human rights and humanitarian laws”.
The FO had called upon the international community to urge Israel to put an immediate end to the “blatant use of force and flagrant violations of human rights”, adding that it was “imperative” to immediately stop the aggression.
Meanwhile, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in a press briefing on Sunday, also condemned the violation of Aqsa Mosque’s sanctity by the Isreali forces. The acts of violence have hurt the sentiments of Muslims across the globe.
He added that such acts are a vioation of international statutes. The global community should take notice of Isreal’s vioation of international resolutions, they added.
He said, “Pakistan calls upon the international community to urge Israel to put an immediate end to the blatant use of force and flagrant violations of human rights of the Palestinian people.”
The Palestine conflict should be resolved in accordance with the resolutions passed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the United Nations, he added.
The spokesperson further said, “We renew our call for a viable, independent, and contiguous Palestinian state, with pre-1967 borders, and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital being the only just, comprehensive and lasting solution of the Palestinian question, in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions.” –Agencies
