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

Israel-Gaza war

Zhao Ziwen

Published: 7:25pm, 28 Feb 2024

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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.

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“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.

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While the investigation was ongoing, Dai said UNRWA should continue its humanitarian work and called on other countries to keep funding it.

Dai’s address came after China’s ICJ representative Ma Xinmin told a haring on Monday that Beijing supported the Palestinian right to self-determination, adding that “numerous [UN General Assembly] resolutions recognise the legitimacy of struggling by all available means, including armed struggle”.

Israel said Ma’s remarks could be interpreted as support for the October 7 attack while Hamas expressed appreciation for “the position expressed by the People’s Republic of China”.

“The Palestinian-Israeli conflict stems from Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory and Israel’s long-standing oppression of the Palestinian people,” Ma said.

In a separate briefing on Syria’s political and humanitarian situation, Dai added that Israel’s air strike against Syria could cause a spillover from Israel-Gaza war, and he urged “extraterritorial powers ” to de-escalate tensions.

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Dai added that Beijing opposed “unilateral sanctions and resource plundering” and supported Damascus to “combat terrorism and maintain security and stability”.

“Israel has continued to launch air strikes on various locations in Syria through the Golan Heights it occupies … China calls on all parties to exercise restraint and avoid escalating tensions.”

Since the Israel-Gaza war erupted, Israel has reportedly increased its air strikes against Syria to attack Iran-back groups such as Hezbollah, which Israel said support Hamas.

The latest deadly attack by Israel was last week – an air strike targeting Damascus that had killed at least two civilians, according to Syria’s state-run SANA new agency.

Last month, a strike in Damascus that was blamed on Israel killed five of Iran’s senior Islamic Revolutionary Guards and several Syrian security personnel.

“Extraterritorial powers should play a constructive role in cooling down the situation and preventing the conflict from spreading and expanding,” Dai said, taking a veiled swipe at Israel’s ally, the United States.

A quarter of Gaza’s population is one step from famine, UN says

Dai urged the international community to increase humanitarian aid in Syria and called for more progress on a stalled cross-border aid mechanism, which had allowed the delivery of humanitarian assistance into non-government-controlled parts of Syria without requiring the consent of the Syrian government.

The government of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad has since approved a special UN organisation to continue humanitarian assistance.

Syria’s worsening economic crisis, which Damascus blames mostly on US-led sanctions, has led to persistent protests in the country.

By 2022, Syria’s GDP had contracted to US$12.4 billion – equal to 4.4 per cent of its GDP in 2010, the year before the civil war started – according to the World Bank. The Syrian pound hit a record low against the US dollar this year.

Beijing supported Assad’s government during the civil war, but denied sending direct military aid as Russia and Iran have done.

China’s support for Syria’s government has remained largely at the diplomatic level. In September, Assad visited Beijing and met Chinese President Xi Jinping. The six-day visit was Assad’s longest foreign trip since the civil war broke out.