Chinese President Xi asks for peace summit to focus on Gaza's ‘tremendous suffering’

China's President Xi Jinping has called for a peace meeting to end the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the "terrific suffering" going on in Gaza.

Xi told Arab leaders at the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing on Thursday that Israel's war on Gaza "should not go on forever" and that "justice should not be absent forever."

Israel is intensifying its offensive on Gaza by taking over the strategic Philadelphi Corridor on the border between the enclave and Egypt and starting a new push into the northern Gaza Strip. On Wednesday, Israel's national security adviser said that the war is likely to last for another seven months.

China promised to send another 500 million yuan ($69 million) in emergency relief aid to Gaza to help ease the humanitarian situation and start rebuilding after the war.

Xi also said that China would give $3 million to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, to help it with its emergency aid to Gaza.

Diplomatic clout

China has frequently called for a two-state settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, an instant end to the fighting, and Palestinian participation in the UN. These are all stances that are very similar to those of Arab countries.

The country is increasingly using its political power in the area. In April, the first talks were held between the rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah in China.

A historic peace deal was also made between Iran and Saudi Arabia last year after years of fighting between the two countries.

For Xi, the Middle East has great potential for growth, but there is still war there. He said this in front of the leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, the UAE, and Tunisia, and foreign ministers from other Arab League countries.

Analysts say China is trying to use the war in Gaza to improve its standing in the region by comparing its efforts to end the conflict to what it sees as US silence.

Camille Lons, a European Council on Foreign Relations policy fellow, told the AFP news agency that Beijing sees the ongoing conflict as a great opportunity to criticize the West's split personalities and call for a different world order.

Xi talked about trade and said that China, which buys a lot of energy from the Gulf, would work with Arab states on many fronts, including in the oil and gas areas.

He promised that Chinese energy companies and banking institutions would be helped if they joined green energy projects in Arab countries that would add more than 3 million kilowatts of power.