General Syed Asim Munir, NI(M), Chief of Army Staff (COAS) met the Ambassador of Palestine to Pakistan, His Excellency Ahmad Jawad Rabei at General Headquarters today.
COAS expressed condolences on the loss of Palestinian lives in the ongoing war in Gaza.
COAS expressed grave concern over unabated violence and willful, indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians by the Israeli Defence Forces in the war.
Incessant attacks on civilian populations, schools, universities, aid workers, hospitals, and the forced exodus of Palestinians from Gaza are manifest crimes against humanity.
COAS reiterated the call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the opening of a humanitarian corridor to Gaza, protection of civilians, and adherence to International Humanitarian Law.
COAS also reiterated Pakistan’s principled support for an independent, viable, and contiguous state of Palestine established based on pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
“Pakistan believes that the fresh spate of violence in Gaza is the result of unabated repression, continued human rights violations, and state-sponsored sacrilege of Al Aqsa mosque. Conflating this war with terrorism would be naïve; taking a narrow and self-serving view of the issue as an isolated attack obscures brutal oppression spanning decades that has led to this outcome,” COAS remarked.
COAS said, “At this critical juncture, the international community must mobilize to put an early end to unfolding human tragedy due to disproportionate and unlawful use of force by Israeli Defence Forces and desist from encouraging them to continue perpetrating atrocities in manifest violation of all norms of civility and humane conduct.”
