Pak PM Abbasi off to Turkey to attend OIC summit

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday left for Turkey to attend the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit on the recent killing of Palestinian protesters at the Gaza Strip by Israeli soldiers.

This visit came after his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim telephoned Abbasi and extended an invitation to him for attending the summit, Pakistan Observer reported.

To observe solidarity with the Palestinians, who are targeted by the Israeli soldiers at the Gaza Strip, Pakistan on Friday observed Palestine Solidarity Day according to a statement by Pakistan's Prime Minister Office (PMO).

So far, 62 Palestinians have been killed and thousands were injured in violent clashes with Israeli forces along the Gaza border since Monday, in what was the deadliest escalation of violence in the region since 2014.

A large number of Palestinians gathered to protest on the Gaza Strip's eastern border to commemorate the Nakba anniversary and protest the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which overturned decades of American foreign policy.

May 15 marks the so-called Nakba Day ('Catastrophe' in Arabic), which commemorates the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian exodus that resulted from Israel's declaration of independence in 1948.

The protests are also a part of the "Great March of Return", wherein the Palestinian protesters have asserted that they want to return to their ancestors' homes in Israel when they were displaced during the war between Israel and Palestine in 1948.

Many countries condemned the violent protests and called for international action against the "massacre committed by the Israeli soldiers.