Gaza conflict will 'further escalate' unless Israeli war machine is stopped, warns Pakistan

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Wednesday warned that there is "every" possibility of further escalation of violence and war in the Middle East unless the Israeli war machine is stopped.

Addressing the UN Security Council's ministerial-level debate on the "Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question," Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Munir Akram deplored the international community's "failure" to stop the "genocide" in Gaza, said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad.

He said the violence and war in Palestine have spread to neighboring areas, including the Israel-Lebanon border, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.

"Unless the Israeli war machine is stopped, there is every likelihood of further escalation in which many nations may be engulfed," he feared.

"It is sad that despite the calls by the General Assembly in two resolutions, despite the near unanimous votes in this Security Council, the international community has failed to stop this genocide taking place in front of our eyes," he added.

In the past three months, he said, the world has witnessed the "most brutal slaughter of civilians of the twenty-first century."

"This brutal and indiscriminate killing of innocents, and the suffering imposed on an entire population, amounts to genocide, as asserted in the case filed by South Africa in the ICJ (International Court of Justice)," Akram said.

- Time to admit Palestine as full UN member state

Akram said to ensure the inevitability of the two-state solution, "it is also time to admit Palestine as a full member of the United Nations."

If Israeli leaders continue to refuse peace, the UNSC, the General Assembly, and all UN member states must take steps to hold them accountable, he stressed.

According to Akram, there are "numerous" precedents of measures that can be taken to persuade compliance with Security Council and General Assembly decisions.

He noted that the Security Council bears a "heavy" responsibility for failing to prevent the continuation of Israel's war and atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza, as well as the accompanying brutalities in the West Bank.

"It is now time for the Security Council, for the entire membership of the United Nations, to consider measures by which to reverse this wanton rejection of peace.

"Beyond the eloquent words heard in the Council’s debate today, we look for concrete steps to halt the slaughter of innocents and bring peace to Palestine, to Israel and the Middle East," he added.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry in the blockaded Gaza Stripe said on Wednesday that the Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 has jumped to 25,700.

The ministry in a statement said 63,740 others have also been injured.

Israeli forces committed 24 massacres across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, killing 210 people and wounding 386 others, the statement said, adding: “Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads and rescuers cannot reach them."

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border incursion by Palestinian group Hamas last October, in which nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed.

About 85% of Gazans have since been displaced, all of them are food insecure and the health system is collapsing. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and ⁠less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.