Pakistan, Saudi Arabia condemn Israeli attacks on Palestinians

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Saudi King Salman condemned Israeli attacks on Palestinians during a telephone conversation on Wednesday evening.
The latest wave of violence in the Middle East escalated in the final days of the fasting month of Ramadan after Israeli police fired tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and stun grenades at Palestinians gathered at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem — the third holiest site in Islam.
The violence was triggered by protests and clashes as Israeli forces tried to expel Palestinians from their houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and hand over their property to Jewish settlers.
During Wednesday’s call, King Salman and Khan “reviewed the latest developments, particularly the Israeli attacks in the city of Jerusalem,” the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported, saying that King Salman expressed Saudi Arabia’s “strong condemnation of the Israeli measures in Jerusalem and the acts of violence carried out by Israel in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
The Pakistani PM said, as quoted by his office, that the “heinous attacks” by Israeli forces during the fasting month of Ramadan were “defying all norms of humanity and international law.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Khan took to Twitter to say that he and Pakistan stand with Palestine, as violence in the region has further spilled when Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, killing more than 56 Palestinians, including 14 children, and wounding hundreds of others since Monday.
In response to the Israeli airstrikes, Hamas, which controls the self-governing Palestinian territory, fired rockets into Israel, killing six people.
The flareup is the deadliest outbreak of violence in the region since the seven-week Israeli war on Gaza in 2014, during which 2,300 Palestinians were killed and over 10,000 wounded as Israeli forces bombed residential buildings, hospitals and schools.

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia condemn Israeli attacks on Palestinians