Interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said that Israel’s sige of Gaza amounted to Genocide of the Palestinian people.

“This is a situation that can be equated with genocide, as a matter of fact it is a genocide,” Jilani said in a press conference in the Foreign Office on Sunday.

Jilani said that he would represent Pakistan in the OIC executive meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday to discuss the situation in Palestine.

“Certainly, Palestine is a very very important issue for us,” Jilani said. He added that there was ‘no doubt’ that Israel had committed aggression which had resulted in several innocent people being killed.

“We also condemn the sige of Gaza,” the FM added.

Jilani said it was an ‘unfortunate’ situation that people in Gaza had no food, water or health facilities leading to a major humanitarian disaster. He then described it as a genocide.

“Our position is that Israel must respect International law,” he said, adding that the UN resolution that recognised the right of Palestinian people’s right to self-determination must be adhered to.

The FM said that the current situation was the result of seven decades of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

He also said that equating Israel, which is an aggressor, with the Palestinian struggle, is ‘unacceptable for Pakistan’.

Jilani then said that Israel could only be recognised as a separate state after recognising the right of Palestinian self-determination on the basis of pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds as the Palestinian capital.

Israel launched air raids on the Gaza strip and is preparing for a ground assault after Hamas launched attacks into Israel, killing over 1,000 people. Over 2,000 Palestinians have already been killed by Israeli bombing.