China today called for the “immediate implementation of a ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip, after Israel announced the death of Yahya Sinouar, Hamas' top leader, in an attack in the south of the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday.
"We have taken note of what happened and China considers it imperative to fully and effectively implement UN resolutions," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a press conference.
"It is necessary to effectively protect civilians and ensure humanitarian assistance," she insisted.
Mao Ning also called for "avoiding a new escalation of the conflict."
Born 62 years ago in a refugee camp in Khan Yunis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinouar spent 23 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 2011 in a prisoner exchange.
In 1987, when the First Intifada broke out, he joined the newly founded Hamas.
He was elected leader of the Islamist group in the enclave in 2017, after having established a reputation as a staunch enemy of Israel, and having also been involved in the creation of Majd, Hamas' internal security service.
On 6 August, following the assassination in Tehran of the head of the movement's political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, Sinouar was chosen to occupy the highest position in the Palestinian group's hierarchy.
Yahya Sinouar represented the hardest and most belligerent line of Hamas and was considered by Israel to be the mastermind behind the October 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli territory, in which around 1,200 people died and 251 were kidnapped.
Last July, the extremist group Hamas (in power in Gaza since 2007) signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organizations, including the rival Fatah, to work together for "national unity", with China describing the document at the time as a commitment to jointly govern Gaza once the war is over.
The Chinese spokeswoman said today that "regardless of how the situation develops, all Palestinian factions should strengthen their unity and the international community should give them strong support", and reaffirmed that "China has always supported intra-Palestinian reconciliation" as "an important factor in resolving the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution".
The signatories committed to continuing to implement these agreements "to end the division", the spokeswoman also recalled.
Beijing has reiterated on several occasions its support for the "two-state solution [Israel and Palestine]", expressing its "dismay" at Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza.
Chinese officials have held several meetings with representatives of Arab and Muslim countries to reaffirm this position or to try to advance peace negotiations.
Following the Hamas attack on October 7, Israel launched a large-scale offensive in the Gaza Strip, which has already caused more than 42,000 deaths, most of them civilians, and a humanitarian disaster, destabilizing the entire Middle East region.
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