UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called on the UN Security Council to take steps to end Israel’s aggression in the occupied West Bank, emphasizing that the 15-member body ensure that the ceasefire in Gaza extends beyond the war-shattered enclave to all occupied Palestinian territories.

“Peace cannot take root as long as Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank continue with impunity,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, the alternative permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said after a briefing to the Council members by the top UN official for the Middle East Peace Process, Sigrid Kaag, on the situation in the restive region.

Over 50,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced, with military raids, settler violence, and illegal land annexations intensifying daily, he said.

“These are not isolated incidents but part of a deliberate strategy to erase Palestinian identity from their own land– It is ethnic cleansing in real time,” the Pakistani envoy added.

Reaffirming Pakistan’s resolute support to the Palestinian people in their struggle for self-determination, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that a sovereign, independent and contiguous State of Palestine based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, was not just a political necessity — it is a moral imperative.

“If we truly believe in the UN Charter principles, if we stand for justice, for the rule of law, for the fundamental right of all peoples to live in dignity – then we must act,” he said.

Earlier, Ms. Kaaq, the UN official in the region, urged Council members to ensure Gaza remains an integral part of a future Palestinian State, and that the enclave and the West Bank including East Jerusalem are unified politically, economically and administratively.

At the same time, she said there should be no long-term Israeli military presence in Gaza – although Israel’s security concerns must be addressed.

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In his remarks, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad urged the international community to “prioritize” the pursuit of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in general and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in particular in a bid to move beyond this perpetual cycle of violence and destruction, asserting that despite the ceasefire, the situation remains precarious and the pause in violence should not be mistaken for peace.