China's FM calls Gaza war a ‘tragedy and disgrace’, urges immediate ceasefire

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has described Israel's war in Gaza as a tragedy for human kind and a “disgrace for civilization,” reiterating Beijing's calls for an “immediate ceasefire.”

“It is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilization that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped,” Wang said at a press conference in the Second Session of the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing on Thursday.

Wang further said that the continuation of the conflict cannot be justified by any means, and that there is no valid reason for anyone to be desperately killed. “The people of Gaza have a right to life,” he said.

He called on the international community to act promptly to achieve an immediate ceasefire and said the cessation of hostilities is an overriding priority, and ensuring humanitarian relief is an urgent moral responsibility.

Beijing's top diplomat also said that China supports Palestine'd full membership of the United Nations, urging “a certain UN member not to lay obstacles to that end.”

“The catastrophe in Gaza once again reminded the world that the fact that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time can no longer be ignored,” Wang said.

“The long-cherished wish of the Palestinian people to establish an independent country can no longer be evaded, and the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue for generations without being corrected," he added.

China: Palestinian statehood key to end world’s ‘longest-lasting injustice’

“We should call for proper settlement of the question of Palestine, which has been lingering on for more than 70 years,” Foreign Minister Wang said.

Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war in October last year.

The United Nations has already warned that in the absence of any changes in the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, the territory is on course to experience all-out famine.

Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which China is a key member, on Wednesday denounced Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, calling for an immediate and durable humanitarian ceasefire in the besieged territory as the holy fasting month of Ramadan approaches.

Israel launched the genocidal war on Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups launched a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories on October 7 in response to the regime's continued aggression. 

The Tel Aviv regime's latest war has so far killed more than 30,700 Gazans, most of them women and children.

Israel has vowed not to stop the aggression until the realization of its declared goals, including “destruction” of the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas, which many dismiss as unattainable.

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