China Determined to Play Intermediary Role in Palestine

At the invitation of the Chinese side, high-level representatives of 14 Palestinian factions held a reconciliation dialogue in Beijing from July 21 to 23. They inked a declaration on ending division and strengthening unity. 

At the closing ceremony, Palestinian factions signed a “national unity” agreement aimed at maintaining Palestinian control over Gaza once the Zionist regime’s war on the enclave concludes. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in the event that China has put forward a three-step approach to solving the Palestinian issue. 

The first step is to promote a comprehensive, lasting, and sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as soon as possible and ensure humanitarian assistance and relief access. The international community should further unite on the issue of ceasefire, he added. 

The second step is to uphold the principle of "the Palestinians governing Palestine" and work together to promote post-war governance in Gaza, he noted. 

The Chinese official went on to say that Gaza is an inseparable and important part of Palestine, and starting post-war reconstruction as soon as possible has become an urgent issue in the next stage. The international community should support Palestinian factions to form an interim government with national consensus to manage Gaza and the West Bank effectively. 

The third step is to promote Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations and begin to implement the two-state solution. He underlined A more significant, authoritative, and effective international peace conference should be supported, and a timetable and road map for this should be made. 

Wang said ceasefire and humanitarian relief are top priorities, "the Palestinians governing Palestine" is the basic principle of post-war reconstruction in Gaza, and the two-state solution is the fundamental way out for the future. "The international community should support the parties concerned in implementing the three-step approach with a serious attitude." 

The core outcome of the reconciliation dialogue among Palestinian factions held in Beijing is to specify that the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole legitimate representative of all the Palestinian people, Wang underscored. 

He further noted that the most important consensus reached at this dialogue was to achieve grand reconciliation and unity among the 14 factions. 

The most significant highlight is the agreement to form an interim national reconciliation government focused on the post-war governance of Gaza, and the strongest call is for the creation of a truly independent Palestinian state in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, Wang said. 

Reconciliation is the internal affair of Palestinian factions, and cannot happen without international support. On the path toward reconciliation, China shares the same direction and destination with Arab and Islamic countries, he pointed out. 

On July 24, the Arab League (AL) welcomed the Beijing Declaration on Ending Division and Strengthening Palestinian National Unity. 

“Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity,” said senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk at a news conference in Beijing. 

Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, one of the 14 factions to sign the accord, told Al Jazeera the agreement goes “much further” than any other reached in recent years. 

Over the last nine months, Israel has martyred more than 39,000 Palestinians and uprooted nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people. The war in Gaza has dominated international headlines, enabling Israel to also quietly seize more Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank in 2024 than any other year in the past three decades, Al Jazeera has reported.