The Pakistan delegation at the United Nations General Assembly led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif walked out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the state to address the world’s highest platform on Friday.

The delegation also comprises Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Science and Technology Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, and Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram.

Members from Iran and some other states also boycotted the Israeli PM’s speech.

Pakistan does not have diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, and believes in a “two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions as well as international law, with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as the capital of Palestine”.

Following the October 7 attack, Pakistan has called for peace and restraint in the Gaza conflict. The South Asian country has also slammed Israel’s airstrikes and raids under the “garb of retaliation” that killed thousands of people.

Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 41,534 Palestinians and wounded 96,092 since October 7, the Palestinian enclave’s health ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.

The toll includes 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours, the statement added.

It merits here to mention that the deceased include women, children, reporters, and United Nations staff working for the relief operations.

The Netanyahu-led government has further expanded the war by launching strikes in Lebanon which Israel claims that such attacks were aimed at Hezbollah hideouts.

Thousands of Lebanese have fled the Israeli bombardment.

PM Shehbaz blasts Israel for its actions

Interestingly, Netanyahu came to the podium after Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz concluded his speech. The premier blasted Israel for its actions.

The premier demanded an “immediate” end to the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and described it as a “systematic slaughter” and “bloodshed”.

In his second speech as the PM at the UN, he said: “This is not just a conflict, this is a systematic slaughter of innocent Palestinians. An assault on the very essence of human life and dignity, the blood of Gazan children stains not just the hands of the oppressors but also those complicit in prolonging this cruel conflict.”

According to PM Shehabz, humanity was “diminished” when the “endless suffering” of Palestinians was ignored.

“It is not enough to condemn … we must act now and demand an immediate end to this bloodshed. We must remember that the blood and sacrifice of innocent Palestinians will never go to waste. We must worry about their plight and difficulties and stand by them.”

The premier called for a durable peace for Palestine through a two-state solution and demanded that Palestine be “immediately” admitted as a full UN member.

At the UNGA, Palestine President Mahmud Abbas took his seat alongside the Palestinian delegation in alphabetical order for the first time after the delegation received upgraded privileges in the assembly in May.

The prime minister said he was expressing “the searing pain and anguish of Pakistanis at the plight of Gazans. Our heart bleeds as we witness the tragedy unfolding in the holy land. A tragedy that shakes the very consciousness of humanity and the foundation of this institution.”

Pakistan has condemned Israeli attacks and called upon the international community to put up efforts of a ceasefire and ensure the safety of women and children.

In July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s decades-long occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal and needs to end “as rapidly as possible”.

Earlier this week, former prime minister Imran Khan clarified that his stance on Israel aligned with Pakistan’s position after an opinion piece in the Jerusalem Post claimed that the PTI founder favoured normalisation of ties with Israel.

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PM Shehbaz asked whether the world could afford to remain silent while “children lie buried under the rubble of their shattered homes and can we turn a blind eye to the mothers cradling the lifeless bodies of the children.” The prime minister added that “in the span of a few days, Israel’s unrelenting bombing of Lebanon has killed over 500 people.”

He was of the view that the failure to implement UN resolutions had emboldened Israel and threatened to “drag the entire Middle East into a war whose consequences could be very grave and beyond imagination”.