West Bank | Pakistan

Pakistan, in a joint statement with 14 other nations, condemned Tel Aviv’s attempt to impose “Israeli sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank, after the Israeli parliament passed bills on annexing the West Bank, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Thursday. On Wednesday, Israeli lawmakers voted to advance two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank, barely a week after US President Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending Israel’s two-year military offensive in the Gaza Strip. Trump has warned that Israel would lose its crucial backing from the United States if it annexes the occupied West Bank. In a statement issued today, the FO condemned “in strongest terms the approval of the Israeli Knesset of two draft laws aiming to impose a so-called ‘Israeli sovereignty’ over the occupied West Bank”, calling it a “blatant” violation of international law. The joint statement was signed by 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye. The FO noted that the move violated the “United Nations Se...

President Donald Trump said Israel would lose its crucial backing from the United States if it annexes the occupied West Bank, in a Time magazine interview published on Thursday. Trump’s comments, which Time said were made by telephone on October 15, were published as both Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned against any annexation. “It won’t happen. It won’t happen because I gave my word to the Arab countries. And you can’t do that now. We’ve had great Arab support,” Trump said when asked what the consequences would be for Israel if it did so. “Israel would lose all of its support from the United States if that happened.” Trump also told Time that he believed Saudi Arabia would join the Abraham Accords, which normalise relations between Israel and Arab states, by the end of the year. “Yes, I do. I do,” he said when asked if he thought Riyadh would join in that timeframe. “See they had a problem. They had a Gaza problem and they had an Iran problem. Now they don’t have those two p...

The Foreign Office on Thursday condemned Tel Aviv’s attempt to “extend its so-called ‘sovereignty’” over parts of the Occupied West Bank a day after a bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank won preliminary approval from the Knesset. Israeli lawmakers voted on Wednesday to advance two bills on annexing the occupied West Bank, barely a week after US President Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending Israel’s two-year military offensive in the Gaza Strip. In a statement released today, the FO said, “Pakistan strongly condemns Israel’s attempt to extend its so-called ‘sovereignty’ over parts of the occupied West Bank, including illegal Israeli settlements, through a draft law introduced in the legislature of the occupying power.” The FO said that these actions constituted a “flagrant violation” of international law, relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. “Such provocative and unlawful measures undermine ongoing efforts to ...

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority’s education ministry accused Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Tuesday of killing an activist linked to an Oscar-winning film, while Israeli police said they were investigating the incident. The ministry said on social media that Awdah Muhammad Hathaleen “was shot dead by settlers… during their attack on the […]

GENEVA: The UN warned on Tuesday that mass displacement in the West Bank had hit levels not seen since the start of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory nearly 60 years ago. The United Nations said an Israeli military operation launched in the north of the occupied territory in January had displaced tens of thousands of people, raising concerns about possible “ethnic cleansing”. The military operation “has been the longest since … the second Intifada”, in the early 2000s, said Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. “It is impacting several refugee camps in the area, and it is causing the largest population displacement of the Palestinians in the West Bank since 1967,” she told reporters in Geneva via video from Jordan, referring to the six-day Arab-Israeli war that led to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The UN rights office meanwhile warned that mass forced displacement by an occupation force could amount to “ethnic cleansing”. Since Israel’s military launche...