Pakistan in contact to provide aid to people of Gaza: FM

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Sunday said Pakistan was in touch with the relevant quarters, including the United Nations and other aid agencies to provide humanitarian assistance to the besieged people of Gaza.

Briefing media in Islamabad, the foreign minister said an Extra-Ordinary Emergency Meeting of the Executive Committee of the OIC was being held in Jeddah on October 18 to discuss the situation in Palestine. He said he would represent Pakistan at the forum.

Israel has committed an aggression and conducted airstrikes on the civilian population, resulting in the death of innocent civilians, including women and children, he said adding that Pakistan condemned the siege of Gaza.

He said people had no water, food and health facility, which created a humanitarian crisis. He said Israel was committing a genocide against the poor people of Palestine.

Jalil Abbas Jilani demanded of Israel to respect the international law and UN Security Council resolutions on Palestine, recognizing Palestinians’ right to self-determination. He said it was also a result of seven decades of illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel that must be vacated and UN resolutions must be respected. He said any attempt to equate Israel’s aggression to that of Palestinians’ struggle is unacceptable to Pakistan.

Maintaining Pakistan’s stance, the Foreign Minister said Palestinians’ right to self-determination must be respected and Palestine should be given a status of separate and independent state, accepted by not only Israel but also the international community with pre-1967 borders with Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.