ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday condemned Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, calling on the international community to stop the “Israeli aggression”.

“Pakistan strongly condemns Israeli air attacks in Gaza that have targeted not only the Hamas leadership but also innocent civilians,” Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan branded the Israeli assaults, in which 23 Palestinians have been killed, as a grave violation of international law and called upon the international community “to come together to stop the Israeli aggression”.

“An escalation in the violence could lead to a spreading of the conflict to engulf the region,” it warned.

There are no diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Israel and the foreign ministry said it has “consistently extended unequivocal and unreserved support to the Palestinian cause”.

Israel on Wednesday launched its harshest Gaza operation in four years by killing the Hamas military chief, Ahmed Jaabari, in a surgical air strike on a car travelling in Gaza City.