China has condemned Israel’s plan to place Gaza City under military control, calling it an “integral part of the Palestinian territory.”
In a Friday statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian urged Israel “to stop the dangerous move at once.”
“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people,” Lin said, while calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that the country’s security cabinet had approved his plan to seize Gaza City – a move that could lead to a full takeover of the enclave.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Netanyahu claimed, “We don’t want to be [in Gaza] as a governing body, we want to hand it over to Arab forces that will govern it properly.”
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Late last month, China’s Special Envoy on the Middle East, Zhai Jun, said any effort to forcibly change Gaza’s status “will not bring peace,” while reaffirming Beijing’s support for a two-state solution.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also criticized Israel’s decision, as has France and the UK.
The war between Hamas and Israel began in October of 2023 following a surprise attack by Hamas in southern Israel that left 1,200 people dead, with 250 hostages taken. Since then, more than 60,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.
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UN spokesperson Olga Cherevko told RT earlier this month that “a catastrophe of unthinkable proportions has developed and is developing even further” in Gaza, while accusing Israeli forces of blocking food deliveries to civilians.