Pakistan strongly condemns Israeli violence against Palestinians

While addressing media, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan has condemned the Israeli violence against innocent and unarmed Palestinians and urged the international community to speak up against the issue.

Referring to his telephonic conversation with his Turkey counterpart, the Shah Mehmood said that Mevlut Cavusoglu is in Saudi Arabia and during talks with the Saudi Foreign Minister today, he will propose an emergency ministerial level meeting of the Organization of Islamic Council (OIC) in order to effectively raise voice of Muslim Ummah on the Palestinian issue.

Referring to Kashmir issue, FM said that there is no change in Pakistan's historic and principled position on Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

“Jammu and Kashmir cannot be an internal issue of India as it is on the agenda of the UN and there are several Security Council resolutions on it. Kashmiri people have totally rejected the illegal steps taken by India on the 5th August 2019,” he said.

At least twenty Palestinians including nine children have been martyred while 65 others sustained serious injuries in Israeli air strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip.

According to Israel's military, it carried out strikes against armed groups, rocket launchers and military posts in Gaza after militants there crossed the ‘red line’ by firing on the Jerusalem area for the first time since 2014.

The day began with confrontations at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's walled Old City on the site known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed these attacks.

The rocket fire and Israeli air strikes continued late into the night, with loud explosions close to Gaza city and across the coastal strip.

Shortly before midnight, Israel’s military claimed that Palestinian militants had fired around 150 rockets into Israel, of which dozens were intercepted by its missile defense systems.

Following the chaos, a massive fire engulfed trees in the compound that houses the mosque, Islam’s third holiest site, and the Temple Mount sacred to Jews.

Palestinian group Hamas in a statement said we salute the Palestinian martyrs who were killed in the Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza strip.