China tells Israel that military campaign against Hamas must be conducted within international law

China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has told his Israeli counterpart that the military campaign against Hamas must be conducted within international law, adding that “a major choice between war and peace has to be made”. In its first call since the attacks in Israel on October 7th, Mr Wang told Eli Cohen that China condemned all acts that harm civilians.

“All countries have the right to self-defence, but they should respect international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians. The top priority now is to prevent the situation from further escalating and causing a more serious humanitarian disaster,” he said, according to Chinese state media.

Mr Wang is expected to discuss the situation in the Middle East when he visits Washington this week for talks with secretary of state Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The visit reflects a recent thaw in the relationship between China and the United States and could pave the way for a meeting between Xi Jinping and Joe Biden at a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco next month.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas has drawn contrasting responses from China and the United States, which has given military and diplomatic support to the Israeli siege and bombardment of Gaza. Beijing has sent its Middle East envoy Zhai Jun to the region, where he attended a peace summit in Egypt on Sunday before heading to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

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Israel protested to Beijing when it failed to explicitly condemn Hamas in the immediate aftermath of the attack on October 7th, and Mr Wang spoke to his counterparts in many countries, including Iran, Turkey and the US, long before his call with Mr Cohen. At a briefing at the foreign ministry in Beijing on Tuesday, spokesperson Mao Ning said that China’s position was aligned with that of the Arab states.

“We all hope that the fighting will stop as soon as possible in order to prevent the situation from escalating or even spiralling out of control. We oppose acts that harm civilians and oppose any violation of the international law, and call for protecting civilians and providing humanitarian aid to prevent an even worse humanitarian disaster,” she said.

“We all support the two-state solution and realisation of Palestinian people’s right to statehood and survival and their right of return, which we believe is the only viable way out of the Palestinian question. We all call for a more authoritative, influential and broad-based international peace conference to be held as soon as possible, an early resumption of peace talks and formulation of a timetable and roadmap to that end.”

Mr Wang returned to the post of foreign minister after his predecessor Qin Gang was removed from office weeks after he disappeared from public view without any official explanation. Mr Qin, who has not been seen in public since, was on Tuesday stripped of his last remaining post as state councillor.

The standing committee of the National People’s Congress also announced on Tuesday that Li Shangfu, who has not been seen in public since the end of August, has been removed as defence minister. His successor has not yet been named.