CAIRO: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Sunday for the establishment of a Palestinian state and a ceasefire in Gaza, where 100 days of the Israel-Hamas war have killed thousands.

In a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, the top Chinese diplomat said “it is necessary to insist on the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign state of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

A joint statement from the two ministers urged an immediate end “to all acts of violence, killing and targeting of civilians and civilian establishments”.

Israel launched an intense military campaign in response to Hamas’s deadly October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

In Gaza, at least 23,968 people have been killed, the majority of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the besieged Hamas-ruled territory.

Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi to travel to Africa in Jan

Shoukry and Wang called for “an international summit for peace to find a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause by ending the (Israeli) occupation and establishing an independent, contiguous Palestinian state.”

The Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, seat of the Palestinian Authority, are separated by Israeli territory. Both were seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has previously called for an “international peace conference” to resolve the fighting.

China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Wang is currently on an African tour that will see him also visit Togo, Tunisia and Ivory Coast.