China declared its readiness to continue contacts and coordination with Russia to de-escalate the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, attributing the cause of the current crisis in the Gaza Strip to the lack of guarantee of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
Chinese state media quoted China's special envoy to the Middle East, Chai Jun, as saying after meeting his Russian counterpart Mikhail Bogdanov in Doha on Thursday that Beijing and Moscow were adopting the same position on the Palestinian issue.
Chai added that his country is saddened by the large number of civilian casualties as a result of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the severe deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Palestine, and is ready to play a positive role in the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, as well as the genuine implementation of the two-state solution and push for an early, comprehensive, just and final settlement of the Palestinian issue.
China opposes and condemns all acts that harm civilians and any violations of international law, Zhai said.
On Thursday, Chai arrived in Qatar for the first stop of a tour of the Middle East.
Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that while he condemned "all acts that harm civilians", "Israel's actions went beyond self-defense."