Highlighting Palestinian people’s suffering of “historic proportions”, Pakistan on Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to act decisively to uphold human dignity, ensure accountability and deliver justice, while underscoring a two-State solution for the Middle East peace.

“The time for words has passed; the time for action is now,” Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar told the 15-member Council on the Middle East situation, especially in besieged Gaza.

The council meeting came on the heels of the high-level international conference for the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine and the implementation of the two-state solution, which on September 22 further galvanised broad international support for the rights and sovereignty of a Palestinian State.

Dar commended the recent recognitions of Palestine by numerous member states, saying that Pakistan had the honour to be among the first few countries to recognise Palestine, following the declaration of independence in 1988.

“This positive momentum must be sustained with resolute determination, seriousness of purpose, and an unwavering commitment to achieving a just and lasting solution,” he said.

“The people of Palestine are facing a crisis of historic proportions; the suffering is a stain on our collective consciousness.”

Gaza has become a graveyard for humanity and the global conscience, Dar said, as he reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people in their just struggle for dignity, justice, and self-determination, through the establishment of a sovereign, independent, and contiguous Palestinian State on pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital.

In this regard, he called for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire; unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza and the immediate lifting of the blockade to allow life-saving aid to reach those in need; an end to any forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, while upholding the right of return for refugees, and establishing an international protection mechanism.

Opening the debate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “We are confronting one of the darkest chapters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, noting that violence has only escalated across the Occupied Palestinian Territory nearly two years after the Israeli war in Gaza. The onslaught in Gaza City, he warned, is deepening an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis, trapping civilians and hostages “under relentless bombardment and deprived of food, water, electricity and medicine”.

“Famine is a reality,” the UN chief emphasised, with people constantly displaced and starving.

“To call this situation untenable and morally and legally indefensible does not begin to capture the scale of human suffering.”