China calls for 'sustained humanitarian truce' in Gaza
China on Thursday called for a "sustained humanitarian truce" in the Israel-Hamas conflict, in a Foreign Ministry paper released ahead of an announcement that a six-day ceasefire would be extended by one day. "Parties to the conflict should... immediately realise a durable and sustained humanitarian truce," said the document, pitched as China's "position on resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict". It called for a "comprehensive ceasefire and end of the fighting". And it urged the United Nations Security Council to send a "clear message" opposing the "forced transfer of the Palestinian civilian population" as well as "calling for the release of all civilians and hostages held captive". The body must also "demand that parties to the conflict exercise restraint to prevent the conflict from widening and uphold peace and stability in the Middle East", it added. Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who presided over a high-level UN Security Council meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli issue on Wednesday, said the two-state solution is the only way to fundamentally resolve the Palestinian question. "The two-state solution is the bottom line for international justice. There is no stepping back from that. Independent statehood is an inalienable national right of the Palestinian people, a right that cannot be traded away," he said. (AFP/Xinhua)