China urges action over Gaza crisis
Washington must join the global community in working to end the conflict, FM Wang says
China has called on the United States to “undertake its due duty”, honor justice and join with the global community in working to swiftly end the spiraling conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remark as he chaired an open debate of the United Nations Security Council on May 16 to discuss the situation in the Middle East, during which he urged Israel to fulfill related UN resolutions and stop evicting, hurting, threatening and provoking the Palestinian people.
He called on all members of the Security Council to shoulder their “due responsibilities” and effectively preserve the region’s peace and security.
Amid rising global concerns over the exchange of fire, the death toll in the Gaza Strip climbed to more than 200, and thousands were injured, as of May 19.
After two emergency closed-door meetings of the UN Security Council on the issue, China, the rotating chair of the UN Security Council in May, hosted the open debate of the Security Council on the issue.
The latest round of violence “only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace”, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned at the meeting.
Wang, the meeting’s chair, made a four-point proposal on tackling the tension, which prioritizes an immediate cease-fire by all parties, more access to humanitarian aid, unanimous global support for a political settlement and honoring the two-state solution.
Before the meeting on May 16, China had worked with other nations in drafting a Security Council media statement on the tension, but it was thwarted by the US.
Wang said that due to the boycott of “only one country”, the Security Council is yet to speak with one voice on the issue.
Most UN Security Council members called on Palestine and Israel to resume peace talks on the basis of the two-state solution and said that the Council should speak with one voice to advance the cause of peace, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters in Beijing on May 17.
Dong Manyuan, vice-president of the China Institute of International Studies and an expert on the Middle East, said that as the global community pays more attention to the issue, Washington’s “double standards and siding with Israel” will be further exposed and the US will come under increasing pressure.
Israel will also come under greater pressure to de-escalate the situation and prevent further civilian casualties, Dong added.
After the meeting on May 16, China, Tunisia and Norway’s permanent representatives to the UN jointly met the media in New York and urged all parties involved in the conflict to end the violence and exercise the maximum restraint.
It is unlikely that the two sides and the Middle East in general will achieve real peace without the political settlement of the Palestinian issue, said Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the UN.
In an effort to ease the dire humanitarian crisis facing the Palestinian people, Morocco has pledged to send 40 metric tons of urgent humanitarian aid to the West Bank and Gaza.
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet said on May 15 that Israel “has a duty to ensure unimpeded access to humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip”.
On May 16, Wang called on Israel to fully honor international treaties, end its blockade of the Gaza Strip and allow the entry of humanitarian assistance.
China will further encourage peace talks, Wang said while reiterating Beijing’s invitation for peaceful figures from Palestine and Israel to talk in China and for direct negotiations by official representatives of both sides.
Pointing out that the Palestine-Israel issue has been high on the UN’s agenda for more than 70 years, Wang said that some Palestinian people have seen their black hair turn gray during the long wait for the restoration of their legitimate rights.
Every major outbreak of violence between Israel and Palestine is “a warning to the international rule of law” and “a test to multilateral cooperation”, he said.
Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on May 18 on what it said were militant targets, leveling a six-story building in downtown Gaza City, while Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel early in the day as the war entered a second week.
Explosions from the airstrikes echoed through the predawn darkness in Gaza City, sending flashes of orange across the night sky. The strikes toppled the Kahil building which contains libraries and educational centers belonging to the Islamic University. Clouds of dust hung over the site as it was reduced to piles of concrete rubble.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from the strikes.
The Israeli military said on May 18 that it fired more than 100 munitions at 65 militant targets, including rocket launchers, a group of fighters and the homes of Hamas commanders the army said were used for military purposes. More than 60 fighter jets took part in the operation.
Earlier, on May 15, an Israeli airstrike destroyed the 13-floor al-Jalaa building housing media outlets including Al-Jazeera television and The Associated Press in the Gaza Strip.
The UN Security Council was due to hold an emergency meeting. The session, the fourth since the conflict escalated, was called after the US, a key Israel ally, on May 17 blocked adoption of a joint statement calling for a halt to the violence for the third time in a week.
US President Joe Biden, having resisted joining other world leaders in calling for an immediate end to hostilities, told Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 17 that he backs a cease-fire, but stopped short of demanding a truce.
The Biden administration greenlighted a $735 million sale of precisionguided weapons to Israel, US media reported on May 17.
The US Congress was officially notified of the proposed sale on May 5, nearly a week before the conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in Gaza flared, The Washington Post reported.
Some Democrats raised concerns about the sales as the Israeli military continued its airstrikes in Gaza, causing civilian casualties.
“While I have supported security assistance to Israel, including by funding the Iron Dome defense system, I have serious concerns about the timing of this weapons sale,” House Democrat Joaquin Castro said in a statement.
He also expressed concern about “the message it will send to Israel and the world about the urgency of a ceasefire, and the open questions about the legality of Israel’s military strikes that have killed civilians in Gaza”.
So far, 219 Palestinians have been killed in heavy airstrikes, including 63 children, and thousands have been injured, as per the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Twelve people in Israel, including two Thai workers, have been killed in rocket attacks launched from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel.
Wang, the Chinese foreign minister, said during a phone conversation with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on May 15 that China had drafted a statement in a bid to navigate the UN Security Council to take actions.
But the Security Council has so far failed to reach an agreement on the issue, and the US stands “on the opposite side of international justice”, Wang said.
The US, having claimed to care about the human rights of Muslims, “should know that the lives of Palestinian Muslims equally matter”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in Beijing on May 14.
A group of Beijing-based diplomats of Arab countries and the Arab League on May 12 met with Zhai Jun, China’s special envoy on Middle East issues, to discuss Beijing’s further role in promoting de-escalation.
Zhai made clear Beijing’s concerns over the escalation, urging all parties involved, especially Israel, to maintain restraint to avoid further casualties.
At the heart of the issue’s recent drastic deterioration is that the Middle East peace process has deviated from its original track in recent years, the UN Security Council resolutions have not been tangibly implemented and, in particular, the Palestinian right to build an independent state has been continuously violated, Wang said on May 15.
An ultimate way out of the Palestinian issue lies in the implementation of the two-state solution, and the Security Council should urge Palestine and Israel to resume peace talks on the basis of the two-state solution as soon as possible, he added.