ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson on Thursday strongly condemned the Israeli military’s action of bombing four schools in Gaza in as many days this week, describing it as evidence of the Jewish state’s “genocidal campaign” against Palestinians.
At least 25 people were killed and dozens more wounded on Tuesday when Israeli forces targeted dozens of Palestinians gathered outside the Al-Awda school in Abasan, a city in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis governorate. Across Gaza, this was the fourth strike on as many schools used as shelters in four days, killing at least 49 people in total according to medics and officials in the territory. The attacks also sparked rebukes from France and Germany, which both labeled it as “unacceptable.”
“Pakistan strongly condemns this week’s indiscriminate attacks by Israeli occupation forces on four schools in Gaza resulting in the massacre of dozens of women and children who were taking shelter there,” Pakistan’s Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during a press weekly briefing.
“These attacks are yet another piece of evidence of Israel’s genocidal campaign against the people of Gaza.”
Baloch said the indiscriminate targeting of civilian populations and facilities in Palestine is a “grave violation of international law and constitutes war crimes.” She said with its latest actions, Israeli forces have once again demonstrated their contempt for international law and basic tenets of decency and acceptable international behavior.
“These flagrant violations of international humanitarian law must not be permitted to become the new norm,” she said. “We call on the international community to take urgent measures to bring an immediate end to Israel’s campaign of terror and the genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.”
The foreign office spokesperson said it was time to hold Israel accountable for its crimes and flagrant violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
The upsurge in fighting, bombardment and displacement in Gaza takes place as talks are set to resume in Qatar toward a truce and hostage release deal in the war now grinding on into its tenth month.
Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. Hamas fighters also seized 251 hostages in the lightning attack, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,295 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to Palestinian authorities. Israel has also imposed a punishing siege on Gaza’s 2.4 million people, eased only by sporadic aid deliveries.
Aid group Doctors Without Borders has warned of “critical” shortages of medical supplies in Gaza, with no resupply for more than two months.