BEIJING: China on Monday hailed the start of a long-awaited truce aimed at ending more than 15 months of war in Gaza.
A spokeswoman for Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said China “welcomes the Gaza ceasefire agreement coming into effect.”
Mao Ning added at a regular press briefing: “We hope that the agreement will be fully and continuously implemented and that a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire in Gaza will be achieved.”
China “will continue to work with the international community to promote peace and stability in the Middle East,” she said.
China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
It has positioned itself as a more neutral actor in the conflict than the US but has repeatedly called on Israel to end what it calls humanitarian disasters in Gaza.
In Paris, meanwhile, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France would keep fighting to obtain the release of the two French Israeli nationals held by Hamas.
“We will continue to fight until the last hour for their release,” Barrot told BFM TV, adding France had “no news on their health status nor the terms of their detention.”
Hamas released three Israeli hostages, and Israel released 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday.
French Israeli nationals Ofer Kalderon and Ohad Yahalomi are expected to be on the list of 33 hostages to be released in the first phase of the draft ceasefire deal.
Hamas said on Monday that Gaza and its people “will rise again” and rebuild the territory battered by Israeli bombardment.
“Gaza, with its great people and its resilience, will rise again to rebuild what the occupation has destroyed and continue on the path of steadfastness until the occupation is defeated,” Hamas said in a statement.
“Over the course of 471 days, the systematic crimes of the occupation have failed to dissuade our people and their valiant resistance from clinging to the land and confronting the aggression.”
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel’s blistering military response has killed at least 46,913 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN.
