BEIJING—On Monday, Arab and Muslim ministers called for an instant end to the fighting in Gaza. They were in Beijing as part of a tour to push for an end to the fighting and to let humanitarian aid into the devastated Palestinian enclave.
The group is putting pressure on the West to reject Israel’s claim that its actions against the Palestinians were necessary for self-defense. They are going to meet with officials from each of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are among the countries whose leaders are meeting with China’s top minister Wang Yi on Monday.
“We are here to send a clear message: we must stop the fighting and kill right away, and we must send aid to Gaza right away,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
The Islamic and Arab summit that took place in Riyadh this month also asked the International Criminal Court to look into the “war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing” in the Palestinian areas.
Saudi Arabia has been trying to get the US and Israel to stop fighting in Gaza. The kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, got together Arab and Muslim leaders to make that point even stronger.
During Hamas’s deadly cross-border rampage into Israel on October 7, about 240 hostages were taken. This led Israel to attack the Gaza Strip with the goal of destroying the resistance group.
The government of Gaza, which is run by Hamas, said that since then, Israeli bombs have killed at least 13,000 Palestinians, including at least 5,500 children.
Foreign reporters were briefed by Irit Ben-Abba, the Israeli ambassador to Beijing, on Monday. She said she hoped there would be “no statements from this visit about a ceasefire, now is not the time.”
She said that Israel hoped the group would talk about the hostages held by Hamas “and call for their immediate release without conditions.” She also said that everyone should talk about Egypt’s “role in facilitating humanitarian assistance.”
“Friend and Brother”
China’s Wang said Beijing is a “good friend and brother of Arab and Muslim countries,” stating it has “always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights and interests.”
Since the fighting began, China’s foreign ministry has frequently avoided condemning Hamas. Instead, they have called for an end to the violence and for Israel and Palestine to work toward a “two-state solution” that would give Palestine its own country.
China has been under Covid lockdowns for almost three years. Since then, Xi has started a diplomatic push against the US and its partners, which he says are trying to contain and control his country.
Beijing has strengthened its links with countries in the Middle East and the Global South as well as multilateral groups led by non-Western countries, like the BRICS bloc of nations.
On Monday, Wang added China will try to “quell the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible, alleviate the humanitarian crisis and promote an early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue.”
In the past year, Zhai Jun, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, has met with leaders from Israel, the occupied West Bank’s Palestinian Authority, the Arab League, and the EU to talk about a two-state settlement and Palestine’s recognition at the UN.
