Efforts should be made to improve humanitarian situation in Palestine, said China's Permanent Representative to the UN Liu Jieyi here on Thursday, while urging Israel to lift blockade of the Gaza strip.
Liu made the appeal at a Security Council meeting on the Middle East, noting that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate in the face of multiple challenges such as blockade by Israel, unstable Palestinian-Israeli situation and serious shortage of resources.
"China urges Israel to cooperate with international relief efforts and completely lift blockade of the Gaza strip," said Liu. "We hope the international community and donors will honor their assistant commitments as soon as possible to increase support to Gaza to help improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza."
The meeting came at a time when the Palestinian-Israeli security situation continues to deteriorate with frequent bloody incidents resulting in increasing civilian casualties.
UN statistics showed that from Oct. 1 to 21, 47 Palestinians and seven Israelis have been killed. More than 5,000 Palestinians and some 70 Israelis have been injured.
Liu said the international community should take prompt actions to ease the situation, and urge Palestine and Israel to put an end to all rhetoric and actions not conducive to easing the tense situation to avoid further escalation of the conflict.
"We urge Israel to avoid excessive use of force and honor its commitment to maintain the status quo of the holy site and stop its actions in violation of the rights of the Palestinian people so that basic conditions can be created for the two sides to sit down to explore solutions of the issue," he said.
Noting that settlement of the issue of Palestine needs collective efforts of Palestine, Israel and the international community, Liu said China hopes the potential of existing mechanisms of Middle East peace process can be further tapped to push for the resumption of peace talks between Palestine and Israel.
"The leaders of Palestine and Israel should put the fundamental interest of their peoples and the overall goal of maintaining regional peace and stability above all else, and make political decisions to push for the gradual settlement of the issue," he said.
"China will maintain communications and coordination with all parties concerned in an unremitting effort to push for the easing of the Palestine-Israeli situation and resumption of peace talks," he added.
