China on Monday said the crumbling Al-Shifa hospital “epitomises the ongoing humanitarian crisis” in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Mao Ning, spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, noted:
China calls for an immediate cease-fire and ramping up humanitarian aid to ease the situation on the ground.
Israel’s air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since last month have killed more than 11,180 Palestinians, including more than 7,700 children and women, and injured more than 28,200, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The constant bombardment by the Israeli army has reduced much of the Palestinian enclave to rubble, forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to seek refuge.
At the same time, the death toll in Israel, according to official figures, is nearly 1,200.
China also called on the US to act objectively on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Beijing “hopes that the US will take an objective and fair stance on the Palestinian-Israeli issue and play a constructive role in promoting a ceasefire and stopping the conflict,” Mao told reporters in the Chinese capital, according to the ministry.
Israeli officials have said they do not target medical facilities and repeatedly claimed the headquarters of Hamas is sited in bunkers under al-Shifa and that the militant Islamist organisation is using patients, medical staff and thousands displaced by the fighting as “human shields.” Hamas rejects the claims.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said there are still 1,500 patients in the hospital, along with a similar number of medical personnel. Thousands have fled Shifa and other hospitals, but physicians said yesterday it was impossible for everyone to get out. There were, they said, bodies lying in the surrounding streets.
