Shehbaz says it’s genocide, asks OIC to supply food and medicines to Palestinians

LAHORE (NNI): Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday strongly condemned Israel for the brutalities committed against Palestinians and called for an immediate end to the bombing of civilians, children and health facilities.

The PML-N president made these demands in a post shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

He asked the global community to ensuring implementation of the UN resolutions and move swiftly to stop the ongoing genocide.

“We appeal to the OIC nations to provide food and medicines to Palestinians urgently. We all support an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital,” he reiterated the stance.

The statement came as the death toll in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank reached 2,383 with another 10,814 Palestinians injured on Sunday morning, according to Palestinian health ministry sources.

In Gaza, the death toll climbed to 2,329 Palestinians killed – a quarter of them children – and 9,714 wounded, while in the West Bank, 54 were recorded dead and 1,100 wounded since the conflict between Hamas and Israel started on Oct 7.

Iran’s mission go the United Nations warned late on Saturday that if Israel’s “war crimes and genocide” were not halted immediately, “the situation could spiral out of control” and have far-reaching consequences.

Also on Saturday, Biden called Netanyahu and, while reiterating “unwavering” support for Israel, discussed international coordination to ensure innocent civilians have access to water, food and medical care.

However, Israeli troops prepared on Sunday for a ground assault after the Israeli military on Friday told residents of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes the enclave’s biggest settlement, Gaza City, to move south immediately. On Saturday, it said it would guarantee the safety of Palestinians fleeing on two main roads until 4:00 pm (1300 GMT). Troops were massing as the deadline passed.

But Egypt, the only Arab state to share a border with Gaza, and Jordan, which is next to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, have both warned against Palestinians being forced off their land.

“This is the cause of all causes, the cause of all Arabs,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday. “It is important that the (Palestinian) people remain steadfast and present on their land.”

For Palestinians, the idea of leaving or being forced out of land where they want to forge a state carries echoes of the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”, when many Palestinians fled their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.

Similarly, Jordan’s King Abdullah warned “against any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians from all Palestinian territories or cause their internal displacement, calling for preventing a spill over of the crisis into neighbouring countries and the exacerbation of the refugee issue.”