China’s President Xi Jinping promised to provide further humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza during a summit with Arab leaders in Beijing on May 30.
In his opening speech at the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, Xi decried the “tremendous suffering” of the Palestinian civilians in Gaza and declared that Israel’s war against Hamas “should not continue indefinitely.”
Xi called for an international conference to resolve the war and pledged 500 million yuan in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
Xi also pledged to donate $3 million to UNRWA, the United Nations agency that provides relief to Palestinian refugees whose workers have been accused of participating in the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
China has long supported Palestinians and has denounced Israeli settlements in the West Bank. As yet, Beijing has not condemned the October 7 terrorist attacks or in any way criticized Hamas for the murder of 1,200 Israelis.
In his speech, Xi also reiterated China’s support for a so-called “two-state solution.”
During his remarks at the opening of the summit, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi praised President Xi for his support of an immediate ceasefire in the war and the two-state solution.
El-Sissi called on the international community to “assume their moral and legal responsibilities” to stop what he described as Israel’s “outrageous” war in Gaza. He also urged the international community to enforce the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and “break the Israeli siege” and Israel’s “attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians from their lands.”
El-Sissi’s government is prohibiting Palestinian civilians from crossing the border into Egypt.
President Xi also called for deepening cooperation between China and Arab states in clean energy, healthcare, trade, and space exploration.
The China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, which also included the leaders of Arab countries like Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Tunisia, focused on expanding trade with China and on security concerns for the region in light of the war in Gaza.
