China Says Will Work to Restore Peace in Palestinian Territories 

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gestures as he holds a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, China, 30 October 2023. (EPA)
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gestures as he holds a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, China, 30 October 2023. (EPA)
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China Says Will Work to Restore Peace in Palestinian Territories 

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gestures as he holds a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, China, 30 October 2023. (EPA)
China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gestures as he holds a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing, China, 30 October 2023. (EPA)

China will do its utmost to restore peace in the Palestinian territories as it takes over the presidency of the UN Security Council (UNSC), its foreign ministry said on Monday, as tensions intensify in the Middle East.

"China will do its utmost to encourage the Security Council to fulfil its responsibilities, play its role, build consensus and take responsible and meaningful actions as soon as possible to ease the current crisis and safeguard the safety of civilians in order to restore peace," ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular news conference.

China's statement comes as Israel ratchets up its military offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas.

China took over the rotating presidency of the UNSC last week.

The conflict in the Middle East tops the Security Council's agenda in November, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, according to state media.

"It is imperative to promote a ceasefire and halt the fighting, prevent further civilian casualties, prevent a larger-scale humanitarian disaster and prevent the conflict from spilling over," Zhang was quoted as saying, the China Daily reported.

China's special envoy to the Middle East, Zhai Jun, has just wrapped a tour of the region.

Zhai, who met leaders of several countries over the crisis, pinned the cause of the Israel-Gaza crisis on the lack of guarantees for Palestinian rights.

The presidency of the UNSC rotates among the 15 member states of the council monthly. China last held it in August 2022.



7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
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7 Killed by Russian Attacks as Moscow Pushes Ahead in Ukraine's East

Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV
Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of a missile strike on a private building in Cherkaska Lozova, Kharkiv region, northeastern Ukraine, 31 August 2024, amid the Russian invasion. EPA/SERGEY KOZLOV

Russian shelling in the town of Chasiv Yar on Saturday killed five people, as Moscow’s troops pushed ahead in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The attack struck a high-rise building and a private home, said regional Gov. Vadym Filaskhin, who said the victims were men aged 24 to 38. He urged the last remaining residents to leave the front-line town, which had a pre-war population of 12,000.
“Normal life has been impossible in Chasiv Yar for more than two years,” Filaskhin wrote on social media. “Do not become a Russian target — evacuate.” A further two people were killed by Russian shelling in the Kharkiv region. One victim was pulled from the rubble of a house in the village of Cherkaska Lozova, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov, while a second woman died of her wounds while being transported to a hospital.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said it captured the town of Pivnichne, also in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.
At the same time, Ukraine has sent its forces into Russia’s Kursk region in recent weeks in the largest incursion onto Russian soil since World War II. The move is partly an effort to force Russia to draw troops away from the Donetsk front.
Elsewhere, the number of wounded following a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday continued to rise.
Six people were killed, including a 14-year-old girl, when glide bombs struck five locations across the city, said regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov. Writing on social media Saturday, he said that the number of injured had risen from 47 to 96.
Syniehubov also confirmed that the 12-story apartment block that was hit by one bomb strike, setting the building ablaze and trapping at least one person on an upper floor, would be partly demolished.
Ukrainian officials have previously pointed to the Kharkiv strikes as further evidence that Western partners should scrap restrictions on what the Ukrainian military can target with donated weapons.
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Kyiv had presented Washington with a list of potential long-range targets within Russia for its approval. “I hope we were heard,” he said.
He also denied speculation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ’s decision to dismiss the commander of the country’s air force Friday was directly linked to the destruction of an F-16 warplane that Ukraine received from its Western partners four days earlier.
The order to dismiss Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleshchuk was published on the presidential website minutes before an address which saw Zelenskyy stress the need to “take care of all our soldiers.”
“This is two separate issues,” said Umerov. “At this stage, I would not connect them.”
The number of injured also continued to rise in the Russian border region of Belgorod, where five people were killed Friday by Ukrainian shelling, said Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said Sunday that 46 people had been injured, of whom 37 were in the hospital, including seven children. Writing on social media, Gladkov also said that two others had been injured in Ukrainian shelling across the region.