Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has said that while the International Court of Justice might have termed the Israeli bombardment in Gaza as “plausible genocide”, it was clear that it was “genocide”.
“What Israel is doing with unprecedented impunity […] is more than just adventurism. It is pure madness,” Dar said while addressing an executive committee meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
“The oppressor is acting as if it has total freedom to break and bend the international law and norms and liberty,” he said.
“Can any sane mind, any conscienable nation, any responsible government or state condone or turn a blind eye to what Israel has done and continues to do,” Dar added.The chair of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has told a summit that the “heinous” killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh risks tipping the Middle East into “wider conflict”, AFP reports.
Gambian Foreign Minister Mamadou Tangara spoke at the beginning of an extraordinary OIC session in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah
The gathering of foreign ministers was called in part by Iran, where Haniyeh was killed last week in an attack the Islamic republic has blamed on Israel.
“This heinous act serves only to escalate the existing tensions potentially leading to a wider conflict that could involve the entire region,” said Tangara, whose country currently chairs the OIC.
Haniyeh’s killing “will not quell the Palestinian cause but rather it amplifies it, underscoring the urgency for justice and human rights for the Palestinian people”, he said.
“The sovereignty and territorial integrity of nation states are fundamental principles underpinning the international order.
“Respecting these principles has profound implications and their violation equally carries significant consequences.”Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has met Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Secretary General Hissein Ibrahim Taha on the sidelines of the Open-Ended Extraordinary Meeting of the OIC Executive Committee in Jeddah to discuss the ongoing Israeli brutality in Gaza.
FM Dar underscored the urgency of a ceasefire and unhindered supply of humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday urged Iran and Palestine to avoid avenging recent assassinations carried out by Israel, warning them against fulfilling Benjamin Netanyahu’s designs for a “wider war” in the Middle East.
Dar is in Jeddah to attend the OIC’s Executive Council meeting which was convened on requests by Palestine and Iran. The intergovernmental body discussed the ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestine and other regional states during the meeting.
Tensions have escalated in the Middle East after Hamas’ political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week when a short-range projectile was fired at his accommodation. Iran blamed Israel for the attack, vowing vengeance against the Jewish state.
“We fully understand the determination of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Palestinian people to respond to and avenge the provocative and criminal assassinations by Israel and the flagrant violation of international law,” Dar told participants of the meeting.
“While such grave action must be avenged, we must not fulfill Netanyahu’s design for a wider war.”
Almost 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military campaign in Gaza triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
Dar urged OIC member states to respond to Israel with “several collective measures” if it does not relent from its military campaign in Gaza.
“We should make it clear: if the Israeli leadership continues to subvert the legally binding demand for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the entire OIC membership would take several collective measures in response, including imposition of trade and oil sanctions,” he said.
The Pakistani minister urged OIC countries to enhance their assistance for Palestinians in Gaza so that their demands for food, medicines, energy and other essential supplies are met. He also called for Palestine’s admission as a “full member” of the United Nations.
The Pakistani foreign minister separately met OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha on the sidelines of the meeting.
Both leaders discussed the situation in Gaza, Indian-administered Kashmir, Islamophobia, discrimination and violence against Muslims, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The foreign minister underscored the urgency of a ceasefire and unhindered supply of humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people,” the statement said.
Dar also met the foreign ministers of Algeria and Malaysia to discuss bilateral ties and economic cooperation between the two countries.
In his meeting with Algeria’s Ahmad Attaf, the Pakistani minister noted the historic ties between the two countries, the foreign ministry added.
“Deputy Prime Minister Dar and Foreign Minister Attaf agreed to further strengthen bilateral economic ties through enhanced trade and investment,” it said.
With his Malaysian counterpart, Dar spoke about enhancing bilateral trade and investment, educational linkages, capacity building of workforce, and people-to-people contacts between the two countries.
Leaked video shows Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting Palestinian detainee
A leaked video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza in the notorious Israeli detention camp Sde Teiman has come to the fore, Anadolu Agency reports.
Israel and Hamas are still close to a ceasefire deal, the White House has insisted despite growing fears of a regional war following the assassination of a key Hamas leader, AFP reports.
“We are as close as we think we have ever been” to a deal for a Gaza ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
“We’re involved in some pretty intense diplomacy here across the region,” Kirby said.
He added that he was “not going to talk about intelligence assessments” of when, or whether, Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah might attack Israel.
Hamas leader’s killing risks ‘wider conflict’, OIC chair warns
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has called on the United States and other Western countries to halt their support for Israel as tensions soar over the killing of a Hamas leader, AFP reports.
“If the United States and Western countries want to prevent war and insecurity in the region they should immediately stop selling arms and supporting the Zionist regime,” Pezeshkian said in a phone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron.
“The United States and the Western countries support a regime that does not adhere to any of the international laws and regulations,” Pezeshkian added, according to his website.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers avoiding war and trying to establish world peace and security as one of its basic principles,” Pezeshkian said.
“But within the framework of international treaties and laws, it will never remain silent in the face of violations of its interests and security.”
In his phone conversation, the Iranian president urged Western countries to “force this regime to stop the genocide and attacks on Gaza and accept a ceasefire”.
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) chief has said the agency will send more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza after the virus was detected in wastewater there, AFP reports.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference that health workers need freedom of movement in Gaza to administer the vaccines, saying that a ceasefire or at least a few days of calm, was essential to protect Gaza’s children.
“WHO is sending more than 1m polio vaccines which will be administered in the coming weeks,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel is hitting its enemies and “continuing forward to victory” as the country braces for an expected attack by Iran and its proxies, AFP reports.
“We are continuing forward to victory,” the premier told new recruits at the Tel Hashomer military induction in Tel Aviv.
“I know that the citizens of Israel are concerned, and I ask one thing of you: be patient and level-headed.
“We are prepared both defensively and offensively. We are striking our enemies and are determined to defend ourselves.”
Separately, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer told reporters, “This country is able to defend itself, and of course, both in ways which our enemies have seen, but also in ways they have not seen.”
He added: “We know how to deal with this Iranian menace … together with our allies, we are able to stand up to them.”Turkiye submits official request to join ICJ genocide case against Israel
Turkiye has filed its official request to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel over its conduct in the conflict in Gaza in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague, Reuters reports.Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said it had made the formal request today.
“The international community must do its part to stop the genocide and exert the necessary pressure on Israel and its supporters,” Fidan said in a post on X.
“Turkey will make every effort to do so,” he added.
The court will make the final decision of admission to the case.
Iran’s response to the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran will take place “at the right time and in the appropriate shape”, Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani said in a statement according to Al Jazeera
Struggle to keep track of Gaza deaths with nearly 40,000 and counting
With much of Gaza reduced to rubble by 10 months of Israeli offensive, counting the dead has become a challenge for the territory’s health ministry, as the death toll nears 40,000.
Two AFP correspondents witnessed health facilities enter deaths in the ministry’s database.
Gaza health officials first identify the bodies of the dead, by the visual recognition of a relative or friend, or by the recovery of personal items. The deceased’s information is then entered into the health ministry’s digital database, usually including name, gender, birth date and ID number.
People use their mobile phones to take images as victims of Israeli bombardment are rushed into Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Aug 7, 2024. — AFP
When bodies cannot be identified because they are unrecognisable or when no one claims them, staff record the death under a number, alongside all the information they were able to gather.
In public hospitals under the direct supervision of the territory’s government, the “personal information and identity number” of every Palestinian killed during the conflict are entered into the hospital’s database as soon as they are pronounced dead.
For those who die in private hospitals and clinics, their information is taken down on a form that must be sent to the ministry within 24 hours to be added to the central registry, a ministry statement said.
