The upper house of parliament passed a resolution Tuesday denouncingIsrael’s war crimes in Palestine during its 11-day onslaught on Gaza andreaffirming Islamabad’s firm support for Palestinians in their juststruggle.

In an unanimously adopted resolution, it called on the internationalcommunity to take immediate and effective steps to save Palestinians fromthe “fascist Israeli war machine.”

Brought forward by Shahzad Waseem, the leader of the House for the Senate,the resolution followed a similar move by the lower house – the NationalAssembly – last week.

“The Senate of Pakistan is clear that Palestine is facing nothing less thangenocide, massacre and ethnic cleansing,” it said, adding “Israel is anapartheid state and guilty of war crimes and settler colonialism.”

“Pakistan stands shoulder to shoulder with the struggle of the Palestinianpeople and we salute the valor, heroism and sacrifices of Palestinianpeople, including children resisting repression with grit, determinationand an indomitable spirit,” it maintained.

Urging the international community to call on Tel Aviv to end along-running blockade of the Gaza Strip, the Senate called for thedeployment of international observer teams in the region.

It also called on the world to send aid to Palestine, contribute to thereconstruction and rebuilding of Gaza and initiate trials against theIsraeli army for its “war crimes.”

Expressing resentment over the “hypocrisy and double standards” of variouscountries on Israeli aggression, the Senate deplored the “obfuscation offacts and politicization of the situation by a few quarters” which createda “false equivalence” between the Palestinian victims and Israeliaggressors in order to justify the Israeli attacks.

“Only a two-state solution is acceptable with the total withdrawal ofIsrael from all occupied Arab territories including Jerusalem and theestablishment of an independent homeland for Palestinians with Al-QudsAl-Sharif [Jerusalem] as its capital,” it added.