Pakistan declares Israel an entity committing war crimes

July 21 (UPI) -- The government of Pakistan has formed a committee to identify businesses operating in the country to boycott after declaring that Israel is an "entity committing war crimes" for the war in Gaza.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a criminal terrorist figure," the declaration said, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency. "Netanyahu is responsible for atrocities committed by Israeli forces in Palestine, and we consider him a terrorist and demand the world community declare Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a terrorist."

Rana Sanaullah, adviser on political affairs to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said Pakistan would identify companies that may be "directly or indirectly abetting Israel."

The declaration from Islamabad was welcomed by Hamas and Yemen's Houthis, who promised "no red lines" in their own response to Israel for a Saturday airstrike against a Yemeni port city.

"We consider this announcement a step towards supporting our people, who are subjected to a genocide and ethnic cleansing by the terrorist Zionists," Hamas said in a statement.

"We call on all countries to take positions and measures to isolate and boycott the fascist occupation entity."

Hamas added that it called for "effective action" to also defend both Christian holy sites in Palestine and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits on the Temple Mount, from "desecration of the fascist settlers."

The site is often a flashpoint for tensions between Israeli officials in Tel Aviv and Palestinians in Jerusalem. Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist Israeli politician who lives in an illegal West Bank settlement, made an inflammatory visit to the mosque last week. And Israeli Police raided the site multiple times before Hamas' attack against Israel in October.

"Pakistan also condemns in the strongest terms the continued genocidal barrage by Israeli occupation forces on the schools and shelters in Gaza," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan affirmed that it believes in a two-state solution to the end of the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians to establish the state of Palestine along pre-1967 borders and with Jerusalem as its capital.