ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday said the international community must ensure full implementation of the Gaza peace plan and condemned Israeli actions, warning that continued violence in the Palestinian territory threatened regional stability.
The comments came after the high representative overseeing the United States-founded Board of Peace for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, warned the United Nations Security Council that the deteriorating status quo in the devastated Palestinian enclave risks becoming “permanent”.
Mladenov presented a roadmap detailing obligations for Israel and Hamas to implement a permanent ceasefire, saying that “the continued killings and Israeli restrictions affecting humanitarian flows are not abstract issues” and urging the Council to use “every means at its disposal” to press both sides to uphold their commitments.
Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s permanent envoy to the UN, said two years of devastating conflict had exacted an “unbearable toll” on Gaza and fragile gains since the October 2025 ceasefire hanged in balance, with a delicate regional situation consuming their focus.
“The overall situation remains deeply precarious. People are surviving in makeshift tents with poor hygiene and limited access to clean water. Only half of Gaza’s hospitals are partially functional. Food prices remain roughly 300 percent above pre-war levels, and available food is often nutritionally insufficient.
Waterborne diseases are rampant due to collapsed sanitation, and outbreak risks remain high,” he said, adding that the world’s attention to the West Bank and Gaza “must not get off the radar.”
“Continued ceasefire violations by Israeli forces, and illegal impediments to humanitarian access persist. In Gaza, over 880 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the ceasefire took effect… All ceasefire violations must therefore end immediately.”
Israel war on Gaza, launched after the October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel by Hamas, was halted by a ceasefire in October last year. The conflict has killed more than 72,775 Palestinians, while the Israeli military maintains a strict security regime and many hundreds more have been killed in the past seven months.
Conflict monitors have warned that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has accelerated since an April 8 ceasefire in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
“We must not forget – behind this dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, was also the inhumane blockade to which the people of Gaza had been subjected for years. The international community has been rightly concerned about that situation and has been mobilizing humanitarian assistance for the besieged people of Gaza,” Ahmad said.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the unlawful interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla by the Israeli forces in international waters, as well as arbitrary detention and reported mistreatment of humanitarian workers on-board.”
Speaking of the West Bank where annexation, settler violence and settlement expansion have continued, Ahmad said that since October 2023, over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and settler violence has displaced more than 40,000 people.
“We strongly condemn the recent provocative storming of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound by hundreds of settlers, led by senior Israeli officials, under heavy police protection,” he said. “Likewise, the Israeli government’s plan to build a defense complex on the site of the former UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem is illegal under international law and unconscionable. These actions are undermining ongoing peace efforts and must be unequivocally condemned.”
The Pakistani envoy said that Islamabad supports the ongoing negotiations led by guarantors and hopes there will be tangible results.
“All parties must cooperate in good faith. Lopsided commitments or attempts to force outcomes will not yield sustainable progress. Critical elements of recovery and reconstruction that overlap with humanitarian imperatives, must not be conditional on other factors,” he said.
“Moreover, any viable framework must offer meaningful incentives for all parties, including a credible, time-bound pathway to statehood and self-determination, that was also the promise of the Peace Plan. That is our shared, ultimate goal – establishment of an independent, sovereign, contiguous State of Palestine based on pre-1967 borders.”
