The officials holding meetings with China's top diplomat Wang Yi on Monday are from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, among others.
"We are here to send a clear signal: that is we must immediately stop the fighting and the killings, we must immediately deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza," said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
The extraordinary joint Islamic-Arab summit in Riyadh this
month also urged the International Criminal Court to investigate "war crimes and crimes against humanity that Israel is committing" in the Palestinian territories.
Saudi Arabia has sought to press the United States and
Israel for an end to hostilities in Gaza, and Crown Prince , the kingdom's de facto ruler, gathered Arab and Muslim leaders to reinforce that message.
In comments posted by his ministry on X, formerly known as
Twitter, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry told his Chinese counterpart: "We look forward to a stronger role on the
part of great powers such as China in order to stop the attacks
against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, there
are major countries that give cover to the current Israeli
attacks."
About 240 hostages were taken during Hamas's deadly cross-border rampage into Israel on Oct. 7, which prompted Israel to invade the Gaza Strip with the intention of eradicating the Islamist militant group.
Gaza's Hamas-run government said at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli bombardments since then, including at least 5,500 children. Israeli ambassador to Beijing Irit Ben-Abba told foreign reporters at a briefing on Monday that she hoped there would not be "any statements from this visit about a ceasefire, now is not the time."
She said that Israel hoped that the delegation would talk about hostages captured by Hamas "and call for their immediate release without preconditions," adding that the parties involved
should talk together about Egypt's "role in facilitating humanitarian assistance."
'Brother and Friend'
China's Wang said Beijing was a "good friend and brother of
Arab and Muslim countries," adding it has "always firmly
supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore
their legitimate national rights and interests."
Since the start of hostilities, China's foreign ministry has repeatedly stopped short of condemning Hamas, instead calling
for de-escalation and for Israel and Palestine to pursue a
"two-state solution" for an independent Palestine. Since the end of China's nearly three years of COVID lockdowns, Xi has launched a diplomatic push aimed at countering the United States and its allies, who he says seek to contain and suppress his country.
Beijing has deepened alliances with non-Western led multilateral groups such as the BRICS bloc of nations while
strengthening ties with countries in the Middle East and the
Global South.
On Monday, Wang added China will work to "quell the fighting
in Gaza as soon as possible, alleviate the humanitarian crisisand promote an early, comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian issue."
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