Islamabad: Pakistan has called for accountability of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The call was made by Pakistan’s Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, in a statement during the eighth special session of UNESCO’s Executive Board. The session was organized to support the continuity of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s educational activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

According to Radio Pakistan, the Ambassador reiterated Pakistan’s support for continued and unimpeded operations of UNRWA for Palestinian refugees. He highlighted the unprecedented attacks on education in Gaza, emphasizing that the level of violence against educational institutions and individuals is unparalleled anywhere else in the world today.

Asim Iftikhar Ahmad stated that the entire student population has been severely affected, with approximately ten-thousand students martyred and around fifteen-thousa
nd injured, the majority of whom are children. He noted that the teaching profession has also suffered tremendously, with over four-hundred teachers martyred and more than twenty-four hundred injured.

The Ambassador called on the international community to support an immediate, complete, durable, and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. Asim Iftikhar Ahmad reaffirmed Pakistan’s staunch position advocating for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of a sovereign, independent State of Palestine.