China’s foreign minister Wang Yi calls the war against Hamas in Gaza a “disgrace for civilization” and reiterates 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 told journalists on Wednesday, March 6, at a press conference. “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.
Victims of the Israeli ongoing war in Gaza at the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Wednesday, March 6, 2024 (Photo: WAFA)
Beijing has been calling for an immediate ceasefire since the start of the Israeli attack in October last year, after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages of all ages. Women, children, and elderly people remain in Hamas captivity as an agreement to release them remains elusive. The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 30,717 with 72,156 others wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said in a press statement on Wednesday.
China has historically supported the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. President Xi Jinping has called for an international peace conference to resolve the fighting. “No reason can justify the continuation of the conflict, and no excuse can justify being desperately killed,” Wang says. “The international community must act urgently, making an immediate ceasefire and the cessation of hostilities an overriding priority, and ensuring humanitarian relief an urgent moral responsibility.”
Beijing’s top diplomat also says China supports full United Nations membership for a Palestinian state. “We support Palestine becoming a formal member of the United Nations,” Wang said. “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,” he added.
On Wednesday, South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order additional emergency measures against Israel in response to the latter’s breach of the measures already in place, the U.N.’s top court said. In a statement the South African presidency warned that the desperate people of Gaza cannot wait anymore. “The threat of all-out famine has now materialized. The court needs to act now to stop the imminent tragedy by immediately and effectively ensuring that the rights it has found are threatened under the Genocide Convention are protected,” it added.
South Africa also asked the court to order that Israel take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address famine and starvation” in Gaza. It added that the ICJ, also known as the World Court, should take these measures without scheduling a new round of hearings because of the “extreme urgency of the situation”.
On December 29, 2023, South Africa filed a lawsuit against Israel, citing its involvement in “acts of genocide” against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, a move that was supported by dozens of countries, marking a historic precedent in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. On January 26, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel must take all measures to prevent acts prohibited under the Genocide Convention and to take steps to ensure the immediate provision of urgent humanitarian needs for the Gaza Strip.
On February 13, South Africa made an urgent request to the court to consider Israel’s decision to expand its military offensive to Rafah. It explained that it asked the court to determine whether it needed to use its authority to prevent further violations of the rights of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
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