Pakistan has expressed “grave concern and unequivocal condemnation” over Israel’s ongoing operation in the occupied West Bank and called on the United Nations Security Council to take “urgent and concrete measures” against Israel.

During a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said that the Israeli incursion is “another blatant violation of international law, including the fourth Geneva Convention which prohibits indiscriminate targeting of civilians in occupied areas”.

“Repeated Israeli transgressions and the disproportionate use of force, such as airstrikes and drone strikes on densely populated areas also contravene principles of distinction and proportionality as enshrined in international law,” she added.

The FO spokesperson added that Pakistan condemns the bombing of the Grand Mosque in Gaza’s Khan Younis area. “This is a grievous assault on a place of deep cultural and religious significance. The targeting of religious sites is prohibited under the 1954 Hague Convention for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict,” she stated.

“We call on the United Nations Security Council to take urgent and concrete measures to end these blatant violations of international law and the UN charter, protect the Palestinian people and hold Israel accountable for egregious violations of international humanitarian law and the genocide and war crimes in Gaza,” Baloch said.