International Desk

The business community of Bangladesh on Wednesday strongly urged the United Nations (UN) and world leaders to call for an immediate ceasefire and settlement of a decade old dispute to ensure peace in the Middle East and thus avoid escalation and protect millions of displaced people.

In a statement on Wednesday, signed by the presidents of International Chambers of Commerce Bangladesh (ICCB), Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Foreign Investors' Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka (MCCI), Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI), and Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) made the call.

Bangladeshi business leaders support and stand by Palestinians’ right to self-determination, sovereignty and independence.

They also vehemently condemned the barbaric massacre of the Palestinian civilians, women and children by the Israelis. More than 14,200 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza of whom more than 9,700 were minor children & new born babies. This is a systematic annihilation of a Nation, never found in the history of mankind.

The Al-Shifa Hospital has become a graveyard of Palestinians rather than a Hospital. Almost 1.6 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since 7 October.

Israel is comprehensively targeting civilian infrastructure, residential buildings, mosques, schools and hospitals, sparing nothing in its brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip as part of a genocidal war while demonstrating a total disregard of the international calls for a ceasefire. In the name of fighting against the terrorists in Gaza, new born babies, children, women and civilians are being killed, under the protection and support of the super powers. The targeting of civilians is a war crime, no matter who does it; under the Geneva Convention.