ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reaffirmed its unwavering support for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, the Pakistani information ministry said on Sunday, on 38th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the State of Palestine.

The Palestinian Declaration of Independence was written by famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish and proclaimed by Palestinian leader and former president Yasser Arafat in Algiers on Nov. 15, 1988. It sought to recognize an independent state, accepting a two-state solution with Israel.

While commemorated globally by Palestinians and supporters as an affirmation of their national identity and self-determination, full sovereign independence remains unrealized amid ongoing Israeli occupation and conflict in the Palestinian territories.

In a letter addressed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, his Pakistani counterpart, Asif Ali Zardari, reaffirmed Islamabad’s unwavering support for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, particularly their right to self-determination.

“President Zardari reiterated Pakistan’s firm and principled support for the establishment of an independent, sovereign, viable and contiguous State of Palestine, based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” the Pakistani information ministry said.

“He also reaffirmed Pakistan’s solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of their continued suffering and expressed support for their aspirations for lasting peace, freedom and dignity.”

Pakistan has consistently backed Palestinian statehood and demanded an end to Israeli occupation and ongoing attacks in Palestinian territories.

On Saturday, Pakistan and 16 other countries condemned continued Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians, warning that they were undermining the Gaza ceasefire, and urged the United States and President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to press Israel to fulfill its commitments under the peace agreement.

The joint statement followed an Israeli airstrike on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Thursday that killed at least six Palestinians, including a surgeon and a 13-year-old boy, and wounded several others, according to medical officials. The attack damaged a building housing surgical wards, forcing the hospital’s surgery department out of service.

“The Foreign Ministers of Pakistan, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates condemn in the strongest terms the Israeli airstrike on the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which caused casualties among patients and medical personnel, in violation of international humanitarian law, which affords special protection to medical facilities and health care workers,” the ministers said in a joint statement circulated by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.

They also condemned Israeli strikes on tents and other sites sheltering displaced Palestinians, saying the attacks put the ceasefire in jeopardy and were inconsistent with Trump’s Comprehensive Plan for Gaza.