News - Middle East: The Group of Seven (G7) of industrialized nations has clearly refrained from calling for a ceasefire in the besieged Gaza Strip to halt Israel’s current bloodshed, but urges for so-called “humanitarian pauses” in the Palestinian territory.

In a joint statement on Wednesday, foreign ministers of the G7 states – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Italy plus the High Representative of the European Union – fell short of calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, which has been violently bombarded by Israel for the past month.
The group’s top diplomats, instead, said that they supported “humanitarian pauses and corridors” during the ongoing war by Israel against Gaza, where acute shortages of food, water, and medicine threaten the lives of desperate Gazans and a few functioning hospitals are overwhelmed amid incessant Israeli bombings.
“We stress the need for urgent action to address the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza … We support humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages,” said the joint statement of the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting that took place in Tokyo, Japan.
Echoing Washington, the intergovernmental political forum stressed “Israel’s right to defend itself”, without condemning indiscriminate bombing of civilian structures, including hospitals, in the ongoing war in Gaza.