By Yahia H. Zoubir
ZHAI Jun, China's special envoy on the Middle East Issue, is on a trip to the region to push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. In his remarks at the Cairo Summit for Peace on the Palestinian Question last Saturday, Zhai called for support for "the Palestinian people in restoring their lawful national rights." This is a position shared by most countries.
The absence of a resolution to the lingering, 75-year-old Palestine-Israel conflict has unsurprisingly flared up once again. The 2.3 million Palestinians living under occupation in Gaza, considered the largest "open-air prison," suffer from hardship and despair with no end in sight. The powerful incursion by Hamas into Israel prompted a response by Israel, amounting to potential genocide in the form of intensive indiscriminate bombardments against overpopulated Gaza. Israel also cut off the supply of water, food, electricity and fuel to the blockaded enclave. Gaza has undergone this kind of reprisal in 2006, 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2021, which caused the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, mostly children.
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