Addressing a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Monday regarding the war on Gaza, China’s Ambassador Geng Shuang said that the US was using the UN platform as a shield to prevent the cessation of hostilities as the fighting moves closer to the one-year mark.
Why has it been unable to stop this human tragedy, the worst of its kind to this day?” said Shuang, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, as quoted by the Anadolu Agency.
Shuang took it a notch higher and alleged that the US has continually shielded Israel in the UN, leading to the negation of several times of cease-fire resolutions. “But for the support given to one side over and over again, several resolutions of this council would not have been scorned and challenged,” Shuang noted.
The Chinese Ambassador brought out the effect of the war, which started on 7th October 2023. It said the situation is ‘alarming’ and ‘past belief’; the local health authorities in Gaza gave the figure of more than forty-one thousand two hundred Palestinian civilian casualties.
The Security Council endorsed a three-phase ceasefire plan in early June when the US and Israel announced they had accepted the proposal for the US-sponsored three-phase ceasefire deal. The Security Council passed a ceasefire plan in early June when the US announced that Israel had accepted the proposal.
In the past weeks, Israel has carried out significant operations: large-scale attacks on several refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank territories of Jenin and Tulkarm. The recent attacks launched by the Israel Defense Forces on the Gaza Strip have drawn much attention to the increasing aggressiveness of the Israeli settlers against the Palestinian population in the West Bank.
Settlers are beginning to go out in military vehicles and, in some cases, dressed in military uniform, and are receiving support from openly far-right Israeli ministers such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
These attacks have created havoc and posed risks to major humanitarian organizations such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and the International Committee of Red Cross as well.
Speaking to the UN council, the Chinese ambassador said,’ Over the last year, while the global leaders jointly demanded an end to ceasefire and killings, Israel has not stopped its operations. He called on the US to ‘act responsibly,’ stop being a mere spectator, and with ‘strategic clout, ’ force the Israelis to stop the military actions right now as the council wanted months ago.
As for this council, heavy responsibility lies on its shoulders, and China supports further actions on its part to extinguish the flames of war, address the humanitarian catastrophe, and bring peace to the region as soon as possible, Mr Wang noted.
The ruthless blockade by Israelis, as well as the continued bombardment by the military, has left nearly all residents of Gaza displaced, as well as fueled by an alarming shortage of food, water, and medical necessities. For the saving, Gaza will require the total and massive reconstruction of all the infrastructures and the final political settlement.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Egypt this week to meet with the Egyptian counterparts to discuss the continued processes of finding a cease-fire deal that will set free all the hostages and address the plight of the Palestinians while supporting the efforts to enhance the security of the region.
On Monday, State Department spokesperson Mathew Millers informed the press that the US is still in discussion with Egypt and Qatar to provide the modified plan “which can take the parties to the final agreement” but did not disclose when this modified plan would be disclosed to the public.
