Pakistan backs international peace conference on Palestine

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan on Thursday backed the proposal of international peace conference to restart peace process on Palestine.

"Peace in the region can only be achieved with the implementation of relevant UN resolutions," Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a news conference in Islamabad.

"Pakistan supports the call for an international peace conference to restart the peace process," Baloch added, referring to the Oct. 31 proposal of Turkish President Erdogan of holding an international peace conference to find a solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict, which was later supported by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last Tuesday.

Earlier, Turkish and Chinese presidents had voiced support for an international peace conference towards solution of Palestine-Israel conflict.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said such a conference "would be the most suitable platform for peace."

"We believe that peace in the region can only be achieved with the implementation of relevant UN resolutions,” the ministry spokeswoman Baloch said.

She advocated for a two-state solution that would result in a viable sovereign and geographically contiguous Palestinian state within the "pre-1967 borders, and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as its capital."

She continued by saying that Islamabad "impatiently awaits like the rest of the world the truce that is expected to come into effect tomorrow in Gaza."

Earlier on Wednesday, a Qatar-mediated agreement was reached between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas for a four-day humanitarian pause in fighting and a hostage swap. Fifty Israelis detained by Hamas will be released in exchange for 150 Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

The agreement also includes the entry of 300 trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including fuel, into Gaza.

"We believe that a durable and sustained ceasefire is critical for bringing the much-needed relief to the Palestinian people, and to respond to the immense humanitarian needs in Gaza that include extensive and robust humanitarian supplies, urgent medical aid to the injured, and shelter to those who have been displaced, as a result of an indiscriminate and inhumane bombing campaign by Israeli forces," Baloch said.

Israel launched relentless air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip following a surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7.

The number of people killed in Israeli air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since then has risen to 14,532, including over 6,000 children and 4,000 women, the media office in the besieged enclave said Wednesday.

The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is around 1,200, according to official figures.