FM Yi calls on int\u2019l community to ensure immediate ceasefire, make humanitarian relief moral responsibility
\nGAZA\/ PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES:
\nChina described the war in Gaza as a \u201cdisgrace to civilisation\u201d and called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire as the conflict stretched into its sixth month despite efforts by mediators to reach a truce.
\nUS President Joe Biden has urged Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan with Israel before Ramazan begins, which could be as early as Sunday depending on the sighting of the crescent moon.
\nHowever, mediators in Egypt have struggled to overcome tough obstacles in their attempts to negotiate a pause, while the United Nations has warned that famine looms for Palestinians trapped by the fighting.
\n\u201cIt is a tragedy for humankind and a disgrace for civilisation that today, in the 21st century, this humanitarian disaster cannot be stopped,\u201d Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference in Beijing.
\nChina, historically sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, has been calling for a ceasefire since October 7, last year, when Hamas attacked Israeli settlements in response to the latter\u2019s policy of occupying Palestinian land and settling Israelis on it.
\n\u201cThe 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,\u201d Wang said.
\nThe war has reduced vast stretches of Gaza to a wasteland of gutted buildings and rubble and sparked a humanitarian disaster for its 2.4 million people.
\nGaza\u2019s health ministry said Wednesday that 20 people have died of malnutrition and dehydration, at least half of them children.
\nOnly limited aid has reached Gaza\u2019s north, where the UN\u2019s World Food Programme has warned that hunger has reached \u201ccatastrophic levels\u201d as aid has been limited.
\n\u201cChildren are dying of hunger-related diseases and suffering severe levels of malnutrition,\u201d the WFP said.
\nAccording to Gaza\u2019s health ministry, one of the latest victims was a 15-year-old girl who died at Gaza City\u2019s Al-Shifa Hospital.
\nHealth ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said \u201cthe famine in northern Gaza has reached lethal levels\u201d and could claim thousands of lives unless Gaza receives more aid and medical supplies.
\nGazans were waiting to collect bags of flour outside a UN refugee agency office in the southern city of Rafah, now home to nearly 1.5 million Palestinians, most of them displaced by the war.
\n\u201cThe flour they provide is not enough,\u201d said displaced man Muhammad Abu Odeh. \u201cThey do not provide us with sugar or anything else except flour.\u201d
\nIn Khan Yunis, southern Gaza\u2019s largest city, dozens of people went to inspect their homes and take what belongings they could recover after Israeli forces pulled out of the city centre, an AFP correspondent said.
\nThe army has yet to respond to an AFP request to confirm such a withdrawal.
\nThe war, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths of Israeli settlers, began after Hamas responded to Israel\u2019s policy of driving Palestinians out of their ancestral land. The resistance fighters also took around 250 captives to negotiate the release of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails. Israel believes 99 of them remain alive in Gaza and that 31 have died.
\nIsrael\u2019s brutal retaliatory offensive has killed at least 30,717 Gazans, mostly women and children.
\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to push on with the campaign to destroy Hamas, before or after any truce deal.
\nIsrael remained inflexible on one known sticking point that centred on its demand for Hamas to provide a list of hostages still being held, a task Hamas says it is unable to complete while Israeli bombing continues.
\nBiden however called only on Hamas on Tuesday to accept a truce plan brokered by US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators, saying \u201cit\u2019s in the hands of Hamas right now\u201d.
\nThe proposed deal would pause fighting for \u201cat least six weeks\u201d, see the \u201crelease of sick, wounded, elderly and women hostages\u201d and allow for \u201ca surge of humanitarian assistance\u201d, the White House said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FM Yi calls on int\u2019l community to ensure immediate ceasefire, make humanitarian relief moral responsibility GAZA\/ PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: China described the war in Gaza as a \u201cdisgrace to civilisation\u201d and called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire as the conflict stretched into its sixth month despite efforts by mediators to reach a truce. US President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-392199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n