President Alvi condemns Israeli attack on Gaza hospital

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday strongly condemned the brutal Israeli attack on Al-Ahly Al-Mamadany Hospital in Gaza and called upon the international community to hold Israel accountable for its war crimes.

The president also urged the world community to take urgent measures to bring an immediate halt to the Israeli bombardment and the ongoing siege of Gaza.

According to media reports, hundreds of Palestinians were killed on Tuesday when Israel carried out air strikes on a hospital and a refugee camp in Gaza, where people had sought shelter to escape the relentless bombing on residential areas.

The president expressed his deep shock over the tragic loss of innocent lives due to the brutal and inhuman Israeli airstrike, the official news agency reported.

He said that Israel had trampled all international and moral norms by killing thousands of innocent people, women and children and then bombing a hospital, where patients were seeking emergency treatment.

President Alvi voiced concern that Israel continued to commit war crimes by indiscriminately targeting civilian populations and health facilities.

The president demanded an immediate ceasefire saying that only a two-state solution with an independent Palestine could solve this festering criminality in the region.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani also strongly condemned the heinous attack by Israel on a hospital in Gaza, killing scores of Palestinians.

“Let us be very clear. The heinous attack on a Baptist hospital in Gaza by Israel is not an act of self-defence,” he posted on the social media platform X.

The foreign minister said the act was a violation of international humanitarian law that targeted innocent children, women, doctors, medical personnel, and displaced civilians seeking shelter.

Meanwhile, Pakistan also condemned in the “strongest possible terms” the Israeli attack on Al-Ahly Al-Mamadany Hospital.

“Attacking a hospital, where civilians were seeking shelter and emergency treatment is inhumane and indefensible,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement.

She said the indiscriminate targeting of civilian population and facilities was a grave violation of international law and constitutes war crimes.

“We call on the international community to take urgent measures to bring an immediate end to the Israeli bombardment and siege of Gaza and the impunity with which Israeli authorities have operated in the last few days,” the spokesperson remarked.