Gaza: Egypt and China demand ceasefire and creation of “State of Palestine”

The foreign ministers of Egypt and China jointly called on Sunday in Cairo for a ceasefire on the 100th day of the Gaza war. They also called for the creation of a “State of Palestine” that would be “independent and sovereign within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

In a joint statement, China’s Wang Yi and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Choukry also called for “an end to violence and hostilities.”

The press release also calls for “an international peace summit to find a just, complete and lasting solution to the Palestinian question with an end to the (Israeli) occupation and the establishment of an independent State of Palestine with territorial contiguity.” In effect, the Palestinians live under two competing and parallel governments.

China has supported the Palestinian cause for decades

President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority holds parts of the West Bank occupied by Israel since 1967, while Hamas, at war with Israel after an Oct. 7 attack on Israeli soil, controls the Gaza Strip. China maintains good relations with Israel but has supported the Palestinian cause for decades and considers Palestine a state. Beijing has traditionally advocated a two-state solution.

On the 100th day of the war, the Hamas health ministry recorded 23,968 Palestinians killed, mostly women and minors, and 60,582 wounded in the Gaza Strip, which was bombed by the Israeli army. The Oct. 7 attack killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli casualties.