The BRICS group of nations on Tuesday called for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza during an extraordinary summit where chair South Africa accused Israel of war crimes and “genocide” in the Palestinian territory.
Pretoria hosted a virtual meeting of BRICS which is a group of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — aimed at drawing up a common response to Israel’s continuing military offensive in Gaza.
“We called for an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities,” the group said in a summary of the meeting. “We reiterated our strong support for regional and international efforts aimed at achieving an immediate cessation of hostilities, ensuring the protection of civilians and the provision of humanitarian aid.”
Leaders and representatives of BRICS said a long-term diplomatic solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was needed to ensure peace, with Chinese President Xi Jinping calling for an “international peace conference” to achieve that goal. “There can be no sustainable peace and security in the Middle East without a just solution to the question of Palestine,” Xi said, speaking through an interpreter.
China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinians and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Describing Hamas’s attacks and hostage-taking as “barbaric acts”, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said they did “not justify the use of indiscriminate and disproportionate force against civilians”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has accused the West of stoking tensions in the Middle East and criticised Israel for its conduct in the conflict, said a “long-term and sustainable ceasefire” was key to “prevent other states from being drawn into the war”.—AP
