Context: 

• Recently, a G7 Ministers meet was held in Tokyo, Japan. G7 appeals for humanitarian pauses in Gaza, seeks hostages’ release.

Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza: Civilian Toll and Displacement

• A month of relentless bombardment in Gaza has killed more than 10,300 Palestinians, two-thirds of them women and minors, since Hamas gunmen killed 1,400 people and took some 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 cross-border gun rampage.
• Around 70% of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and many of them are crowded into U.N. schools-turned-shelters. Civilians in Gaza are relying on a trickle of aid and their own daily foraging for food and water from supplies that have dwindled after weeks of siege.

Key Outcomes of G7 Meeting on Israel-Palestine Conflict

• Humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance, civilian movement, and the release of hostages
• The foreign ministers of G7 countries also emphasized on “Israel’s right to defend itself and its people in accordance with international law as it seeks to prevent a recurrence” of the Hamas attacks on Israel
• Iran to refrain from providing support for Hamas and taking further actions that destabilize the Middle East, including support for Lebanese Hezbollah and other non-state actors
• The G7 said that a two-state solution “remains the only path to a just, lasting, and secure peace”.

Source: The Hindu