ISTANBUL

Pakistan’s army chief Gen. Asim Munir on Saturday expressed Islamabad's hope that the “Gaza peace initiative would lead to an enduring peace in the region.”

"Pakistan expects the ceasefire to continue," followed by smooth flow of humanitarian relief into the strip and reconstruction of Gaza, Munir said, during an address at a passing out parade at the Pakistan Military Academy Kakul in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Islamabad remains committed to the "indispensability of the two-state solution and the need for an independent, sovereign, and viable state of Palestine, based on pre-1967 war borders with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital," he stressed.

US President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday hosted a summit in the Red Sea city of Sharm el-Sheikh, where they signed a deal on Gaza, ending the two-year war.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.

Munir added that the suffering of the Palestinians and the "Kashmiri subjugation” were "festering wounds on the conscience of humanity," cautioning India that there is "no space for war in a nuclearized environment."

"Settle the core issues with Pakistan, as per the international norms, on the basis of equality and mutual respect," he said, addressing New Delhi.

There was no immediate reaction from India to Munir's latest remarks.