Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday urged the United Nations Security Council and the international community to bring about an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, along with unrestricted humanitarian access amid a food crisis in the besieged territory.

Gaza’s population of more than two million people is facing severe shortages of food and other essentials, with residents frequently killed as they try to collect humanitarian aid at a handful of distribution points.

The UN on Tuesday said Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operations. An officially private effort, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel halted supplies into the Gaza Strip for more than two months, sparking famine warnings. GHF operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on people waiting to collect rations in the Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military is seeking to destroy Hamas.

The crisis was addressed by FM Dar as he chaired the UNSC’s Quarterly Open Debate on the “Situation in the Middle East including the Palestinian Question”.

“It is time to give the Palestinian people what they have been denied for too long: justice, freedom, dignity, and a state of their own. That is the path to durable peace and stability in the Middle East,” FM Dar said.

He emphasised that the path to lasting peace lay in upholding international law, ending foreign occupation, rejecting the use of force and advancing solutions through dialogue and diplomacy.

“Gaza has become a graveyard for innocent lives as well as for international law,” Dar said, citing systematic attacks on hospitals, schools, refugee camps and aid convoys.

He emphasised that the unfolding hunger crisis, with a third of Gaza’s population going days without food, was a dire warning of “catastrophic levels of food insecurity”.

Calling the Palestinian issue a litmus test for the UN’s credibility, FM Dar warned that failure to act decisively would embolden impunity and erode the international rules-based order.

He urged the UNSC to pursue with unity and urgency, concrete measures, including an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire across Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories with full implementation of Resolution 2735, unfettered humanitarian access and protection for aid workers, urgent restoration of food and medical supply lines, renewed support for the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, an end to forced displacement and illegal settlement expansion, particularly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, implementation of the Arab and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation-led reconstruction plan for Gaza and revival of a time-bound political process to achieve a two-state solution in accordance with UN resolutions and international law.

Reaffirming Pakistan’s support for a sovereign Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, FM Dar welcomed recent momentum toward Palestine’s recognition and UN membership.

He highlighted the upcoming International Conference on the Two-State Solution, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, as a key opportunity for renewed diplomatic progress.

Dar also addressed broader regional issues, urging peaceful resolution of conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, and condemning recent Israeli military actions in Iran.

He reiterated Pakistan’s support for multilateral diplomacy and adherence to international law as the only path to regional peace and stability.