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Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Pakistan’s northern Gilgit city today, Monday, to review the flood situation in the region and damages caused during the monsoon season, his office said as the death toll from rains in the country surged to 300.

Pakistani authorities last week declared 37 villages in the northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region “calamity-affected” after cloud burst-induced floods disrupted life there. Ten people have lost their lives and five have been injured due to torrential monsoon rains in GB since June 26, as per the National Disaster Management Authority’s (NDMA) latest situation report. 

GB’s Diamer, Skardu, Gilgit and Ghizer were among the districts hit worst by rains and floods last week. The situation prompted authorities to launch immediate relief activities in these areas.

“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will visit Gilgit-Baltistan to assess the flood situation and damages caused by recent rains,” the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said in a statement. “The prime minister will meet victims of the rains and floods in Gilgit and distribute relief funds.”

Sharif will chair a meeting to review damages caused by the recent rains and meet GB’s governor and chief minister, the statement added.

Pakistan, which ranks among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations, has witnessed increasingly erratic weather events in recent years.

In May, at least 32 people were killed in severe storms, while a third of the country was submerged by devastating floods in 2022 that killed more than 1,700 people, affected over 30 million and caused an estimated $35 billion in damages.

Of the 300 killed since June 26 from rain-related incidents in Pakistan, 140 are children, 103 are men while 57 are females, as per the NDMA’s data. Punjab has reported the highest number of deaths, 162, followed by northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province with 70 casualties, Sindh with 28 deaths, Balochistan with 20 casualties, GB with 10, Islamabad with eight and Azad Kashmir with five deaths. 

The Meteorological Department has warned of more rains in the country from Monday, saying that monsoon currents penetrating the country are expected to intensify from Aug. 4. The PMD had warned that heavy rains may generate flash floods in local nullahs/streams of Chitral, Dir, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, Kohistan, Abbottabad, Buner, Charsadda, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, northeast Punjab and Kashmir from Aug. 5-7. 

“Landslides/mudslides may cause roads’ closure in the vulnerable hilly areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Murree, Galliyat and Kashmir during the forecast period,” the PMD’s report said. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the recent “storming” of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday, saying that such actions were a violation of international law and imperil the prospects for peace in the Middle East.

Ben-Gvir visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Sunday and said he prayed there, challenging rules covering one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East. Under a delicate decades-old “status quo” arrangement with Muslim authorities, the Al-Aqsa compound is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and Jews can visit but may not pray there. 

The move drew condemnations from Middle Eastern countries such as �������� and Jordan, who both opposed Ben Gvir’s visit by saying that it was a violation of international law. 

“Pakistan unequivocally condemns the recent act of storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli ministers, accompanied by settler groups and shielded by Israeli police,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X.

“This sacrilege against one of Islam’s holiest sites is not only an affront to the faith of over a billion Muslims but also a direct assault on international law and the collective conscience of humanity.”

The Pakistani prime minister said Israel’s “shameless actions” are deliberately inflaming tensions in Palestine and the wider region, noting that it was pushing the Middle East closer to further instability and conflict.

Sharif reiterated Islamabad’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the revival of a “credible” process for a two-state solution, that leads to an independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. 

In a separate message, Pakistan’s foreign office warned that such provocations risk igniting a “catastrophic spiral of violence” across the region.

“The world must not remain silent in the face of such systemic, illegal, inhumane, and unlawful aggression,” it added. 

The foreign office urged the international community to take “immediate and concrete steps” to hold Israel accountable for its illegal actions and to protect the religious sanctity of Al‑Aqsa Mosque.

Pakistan, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, has consistently condemned Israeli military actions and called for the uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid into Palestinian territory.

The South Asian country last month used its presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to refocus global attention on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Israel’s war on Gaza began when Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, and abducted another 251. They are still holding 50 captives, around 20 believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals. Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed more than 60,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count, is staffed by medical professionals. The United Nations and other independent experts view its figures as the most reliable count of casualties. Israel has disputed its figures, but hasn’t provided its own account of casualties.