United Nations, August 27, 2025(kamran Raja): Pakistan has warned that the combined effect of mass killings, forced displacement, famine, illegal settlements, and destruction of habitable land in Gaza leaves no ambiguity that Israel is carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in plain sight.
Delivering a powerful national statement during the UN Security Council briefing on the Middle East, including the Question of Palestine, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, urged the Council not to remain a bystander. “Every moment of inaction deepens the suffering, multiplies the grief, and tears apart the very fabric of international law,” he said.
“The world is watching. History will not forgive delay. It will not forget inaction. The Council must rise to its Charter duty and act,” the Ambassador stressed.
Citing international media reports and Israel’s own military data, Ambassador Asim highlighted that 83% of those killed are civilians. He emphasized that this is not collateral damage but “mass carnage.” He reminded the Council that in the past 691 days, Israel has trampled upon every principle of international law and humanitarian law with impunity, killing over 62,000 Palestinians, including 19,000 children, 10,000 women, more than 270 journalists, and over 360 UN aid workers.
He condemned the deliberate weaponization of hunger, citing the latest IPC analysis confirming that famine is now present in Gaza City, threatening over half a million people. “The use of starvation of civilians as a method of warfare may constitute a war crime,” he warned.
Ambassador Asim strongly condemned Israel’s so-called “military operation” and the planned occupation of Gaza City, which he said is a blueprint for further catastrophe, potentially displacing an additional one million people. He also denounced Israel’s E-1 settlement plan as a deliberate attempt to bury the two-State solution in violation of international law and Security Council resolutions.
Pakistan called on the Security Council to take the following urgent actions:
- Demand an immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire across Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
- Ensure an immediate and unconditional lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid and guarantee its safe and unhindered distribution;
- Secure the release of all hostages and exchange of Palestinian prisoners;
- Halt Israel’s declared intent to occupy Gaza City; and
- End forced displacement, illegal settlement expansion, and annexations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Ambassador Asim cautioned against attempts to criticize or pressurize the UN and its senior officials, or to dismiss the findings of the ICJ, humanitarian organizations, and independent media. “Only by accepting the reality can peace be built,” he said.
He welcomed the resolution adopted by the OIC’s 21st extraordinary session of Foreign Ministers on 25 August, which urged the Council to act under Chapter VII to halt Israel’s aggression and hold it accountable for its violations. He also termed last month’s High-Level Conference on the peaceful settlement of the Palestinian Question, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, a timely initiative reflecting the will of the international community.
Ambassador Asim concluded that this Conference must be followed by “concrete and coordinated international action to finally achieve the long-coveted peace and stability in the Middle East.”