Chinese, Palestinian envoys urge Security Council to act promptly following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

Chinese and Palestinian envoys to the United Nations on Tuesday condemned the deadly overnight airstrikes on Gaza by Israeli forces, urging the Security Council to take immediate actions to stop the renewed violence.

The airstrikes, which took place early Tuesday, killed at least 413 Palestinians and injured 562 others, according to Gaza-based health authorities.

Speaking ahead of a Security Council meeting on Gaza, Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the U.N., expressed strong condemnation of Israel's assault.

"This is deja vu. Once again, Israel has violated the peace accord, the ceasefire agreement. Of course, we strongly condemn that, and we urge the Security Council to take further actions," Fu said.

Meanwhile, Riyad Mansour, permanent observer of the State of Palestine to the U.N., emphasized the need for the Security Council to uphold its resolutions, especially Resolution 2735 adopted in June 2024, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and a permanent end to hostilities.

"First of all, we condemn this aggression against our people in this holy month of Ramadan, particularly in the Gaza Strip. And we want the Security Council to rise up to the occasion of implementing its resolutions, especially Resolution 2735, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and the ceasefire to become permanent. And we need to stop the killing of our people, more than 400 during the night, against the people in the Gaza Strip. Many of them are women and children. This has to be stopped immediately," said Mansour.

Israel's decision to resume airstrikes on Gaza and block the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip has drawn condemnation from other U.N. member states, including Algeria and Pakistan, with Guyana's representative labeling the action as "illegal." And many members of the Security Council joined the call for unified action to address the escalating tensions.

Earlier in the day, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed shock at the Israeli shelling and reiterated his call for the ceasefire to be respected.

"The secretary general expressed a shock earlier today at the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and he strongly appeals for the ceasefire to be respected, for unimpeded humanitarian assistance to be reestablished, and for the remaining hostages to be released unconditionally," Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, told reporters at the U.N. headquarters.

Acting U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Shea, however, told the Security Council that the responsibility for the resumption of violence in Gaza "lies solely with Hamas."

When questioned about the U.S. representative's remarks and which party should be blamed for the escalation, Haq responded, "I think we've been very clear in the factual accounting I've just given about what we believe is going on in the ground. Different member states will have their opinions, but we are providing the basic facts of what we have been able to see."

Chinese, Palestinian envoys urge Security Council to act promptly following Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.

Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.

"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.

China's development never a threat: FM spokesman