China’s UN envoy warns escalated Israel-Gaza war could spillover into Syria, worsen humanitarian crisis

At Security Council briefing, Dai Bing urged Israel to open humanitarian access in the Gaza strip, restrain air strikes against Syrian targets

Envoy says ‘extraterritorial powers’ should help prevent conflict from expanding, in veiled swipe at US

Reading Time:3 minutes

A damaged building following a Israeli missile strike in Damascus, Syria. Photo EPA-EFE

Published: 7:25pm, 28 Feb 2024

China has raised concerns at the United Nations about Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Syria, urging the Jewish state to open humanitarian access in the war-torn strip and warning that its air strikes against Syria may cause a Gaza war spillover.

In an address to a United Nations Security Council briefing on Gaza’s food safety on Tuesday, Dai Bing, charge d’affaires of China’s permanent mission to the UN, urged Israel to open all routes to Gaza for humanitarian goods.

“Humanitarian assistance is the hope on which the population of Gaza depends … However, the entry of humanitarian goods into Gaza has been made difficult by artificial barriers. In the past month, Gaza has received far less humanitarian goods than even the average for the previous period,” Dai said.

“We call upon Israel to effectively fulfil its obligations as the occupying party under the Geneva Conventions, to fully cooperate with the implementation of Security Council resolutions, and to open all access routes by land, sea and air in order to guarantee the safe, rapid and unimpeded entry of humanitarian goods.”

Dai said Israel should “strictly adhere to deconfliction”, citing the International Court of Justice (ICJ) provisional measures imposed on Israel in January that “Israel must take all possible measures to prevent genocidal acts as outlined in Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention”.

The Chinese envoy also said Beijing supported the UN in investigating The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), which had its funding cut after some of its staff were accused of involvement in the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x