China demands Israel allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza amid ongoing crisis

Warning that the “tragic scenes on the ground” in Gaza are “just the tip of the iceberg of humanitarian devastation”, China said hunger in the besieged Palestinian enclave “cannot be weaponised”.

“Hunger cannot be weaponized, humanitarian issues cannot be politicized and man-made escalation of humanitarian disaster is unacceptable,” Chinese Ambassador Fu Kong told a UN Security Council briefing on Gaza on Tuesday.

Calling on Israel to “meet its obligations under international humanitarian law, heed the overwhelming call of the international community,” Fu said Tel Aviv must “take concrete steps to ensure the rapid and safe entry of humanitarian supplies on a scale in Gaza”.

A Security Council resolution aimed at expanding humanitarian access inside Gaza “has obviously not been implemented,” he said.

“It is necessary to examine the reasons why the resolution was not effectively implemented,” Fu said, calling for the safe and orderly distribution of humanitarian supplies across Gaza and cooperation with the UN and other humanitarian organizations.

In an apparent reference to the US, the ambassador said: “We call on the country concerned to work harder to push for political will from the party concerned to effectively remove the barriers preventing large-scale humanitarian aid from entering Gaza.”

“The immediate implementation of a lasting ceasefire and the timely resumption of a two-state solution” are both necessary to save innocent lives, Fu said.

Israel, in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued violent assault on Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Nearly 38,000 Palestinians have been killed since then, mostly women and children, and more than 87,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months after Israel’s war, vast swaths of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the town of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before its May 6 invasion.