China demanded peace talks between the two parties and urged Israel to uphold international humanitarian law and safeguard the protection of Palestinian people in its conflict with the militant group Hamas.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, allegedly remarked, “Every country should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians,” during a phone chat with his Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, on Monday.
According to a transcript of Wang and Cohen’s conversation, “China will firmly support [any resolution] as long as [it] is conducive to peace; as long as [it] is conducive to Palestinian-Israeli reconciliation, China will do its best.”
After the Palestinian militant organization launched an unexpected onslaught on southern Israel on October 7, Israel initiated a campaign against Hamas that is now in its third week. Israel’s response has been to blast Hamas-run Gaza as retaliation.
At least 1,400 Israelis have died as a result of the fighting, and more than 5,000 Gaza Strip residents have died as a result of retaliatory air strikes. These figures could not be independently verified by CNBC.
Wang avoided making any overt or explicit mention to Hamas, instead stating that the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis has an impact on the entire world and presents significant war or peace decisions.
Additionally, China urged the quick convening of “a more authoritative, wide-ranging and effective” international peace summit. The plan is intended to “resume peace talks to formulate a timetable and road map to peace between Palestine and Israel,” according to a readout from a separate call on Monday that Wang held with his counterpart from the Palestinian National Authority, Riyad al-Maliki.
In the Palestinian territories, Hamas and Fatah, formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, are the two main political parties. In the West Bank that Israel occupies, Fatah continues to be in charge of the Palestinian National Authority.
Wang made the calls on Monday as he gets ready to travel to Washington later this week for discussions with President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In a separate conversation on October 15, Wang informed Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud that Israel’s actions had “gone beyond self-defense” and that it should heed the appeal of the international community to end its “collective punishment” of the people in Gaza.