Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Syed Asim Munir on Tuesday expressed grave concern over unabated violence and indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces.

Army chief also called upon the international community to play their role in ending Israel’s atrocities in Gaza.

The COAS passed these remarks in a meeting with the Ambassador of Palestine to Pakistan, His Excellency Ahmad Jawad Rabei at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, the military’s media wing Inter Services Public Relations Pakistan (ISPR) shared.

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During the meeting, the COAS expressed condolences on the loss of Palestinian lives in the ongoing war in Gaza.

Incessant attacks on civilian population, schools, universities, aid workers, hospitals and the forced exodus of Palestinians from Gaza are manifest crimes against humanity, he said.

The COAS reiterated the call for immediate cessation of hostilities, opening of humanitarian corridor to Gaza, protection of civilians, and adherence to the International Humanitarian Law.

He also reiterated Pakistan’s principled support for an independent, viable and contiguous state of Palestine established on the basis of pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

“Pakistan believes that the fresh spate of violence in Gaza is the result of unabated repression, continued human rights violations, and state-sponsored sacrilege of Al Aqsa mosque.

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“Conflating this war with terrorism would be naïve; taking a narrow and self-serving view of the issue as an isolated attack, obscures brutal oppression spanning decades that has led to this outcome,” the ISPR quoted the COAS as saying.

Army chief urged the international community for efforts to put an early end to unfolding human tragedy due to disproportionate and unlawful use of force by Israeli Defence Forces and desist from encouraging them to continue perpetrating atrocities in manifest violation of all norms of civility and humane conduct, it stated.