ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — Pakistan joined the foreign ministers of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates in a joint statement on Sunday condemning remarks by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defence Minister Israel Katz regarding the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
The eight ministers said the statements by Ben-Gvir and Katz, including what the statement described as proposals for plans and mechanisms aimed at forcibly removing Palestinians from their land, “flagrantly violate principles of international law, including international humanitarian law,” and pose a direct threat to the rights of the Palestinian people. The ministers reaffirmed their “unequivocal rejection and condemnation of any attempts or plans” to displace Palestinians, whether inside or outside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, warning against the consequences of turning such calls into declared policy or concrete measures.
The statement explicitly linked its warning to the wider diplomatic effort surrounding Gaza, saying any move toward forced displacement would “constitute a direct challenge to international efforts aimed at achieving peace,” naming President Donald Trump’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” and its rejection of forced displacement as central to those efforts. The ministers went on to stress that Gaza remains an integral part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and that lasting peace can only come through a two-state solution based on an independent Palestinian state along the lines that existed before June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The eight countries also called on the international community, and the United Nations Security Council specifically, to confront any attempt to impose a new demographic or geographic reality in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and reaffirmed their support for what the statement called the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.
Sunday’s statement continues a pattern of coordinated diplomacy among the same bloc of countries. The same eight foreign ministers issued a joint statement in May condemning Ben-Gvir’s treatment of detained participants in a Gaza-bound flotilla, and separately welcomed President Trump’s Gaza peace proposal, including his stated rejection of Palestinian displacement and West Bank annexation, when it was first announced.
The statement was dated Islamabad, September 6, 2026, and numbered 235/2026.
