Now is the time for permanent cease-fire in Gaza: Maltese FM

Malta's top diplomat denounced the killing of civilians by Israel in Gaza as "they are not the perpetrators" of the Oct. 7 attacks, the incident that Israel has used to launch over four months of attacks on Gaza, so far taking the lives of almost 30,000 people.

Now is the time for a permanent cease-fire in the besieged enclave, said Ian Borg, foreign minister of the Mediterranean island nation, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference in the southeastern German city.

Borg told Anadolu that Malta "condemned unreservedly" the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, which killed some 1,200 people, and also supports "Israel's right to self-defense within international law parameters," stressing the need for a "proportionate response to the attacks."

Praising the 10-day humanitarian pause last November, the Maltese foreign minister added, however, that in the months of attacks outside that brief pause: "Too many innocent lives were lost, children, women and elderly. They are not perpetrators of the seventh of October and therefore, they should not be killed in response to that."

On Malta's decision to not suspend funding to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), with a handful of its staffers accused of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks, Borg said Malta is closely following the investigation into the accusations but in the meantime, it will keep supporting the agency.

"Because if not the UNWRA, then someone else has to give the humanitarian aid and all the other support to the civilians in Gaza," he noted.

Several countries, including the US, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Canada, have suspended funding to the agency following the Israeli accusations.

Asked about the planned Israeli operation on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Borg expressed concern about the plan and said Gazans have been moving and been pushed from one part of the besieged strip to another and "that is why we are calling for a cease-fire."

About 1.5 million Palestinians previously displaced by Israel's offensive on Gaza are holed up in Rafah, seeking refuge from hostilities that have laid waste to wide swathes of Palestinian territory.

Israel's reported plans for an offensive on the city have sounded international alarm bells, with countries urging restraint or the cancelation of the operation.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas. The ensuing Israeli attack has killed over 28,000 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.