China’s Xi calls for ‘global truce’ during Paris Olympics

ISTANBUL

China’s president called Monday for a “global truce” during the upcoming Paris Olympics as Israel continued its attacks on the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

“The world we are living in is not at peace,” Xi Jinping told a live-streamed joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

“China, together with France, will take the Paris Olympic Games as an opportunity to call for a global cessation of hostilities,” he said.

France is set to host the 2024 Summer Olympics from July 26 to Aug. 11.

Pointing to the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war, Xi said “this conflict has been around for quite some time.”

He said it is a “tragedy” that is “a test of the human conscience.”

“The international community must do something. We call for an immediate, comprehensive and sustainable cease-fire in Gaza,” he added.

Xi said China also supports Palestine becoming a member of the UN.

“As permanent members of the UN Security Council and responsible major countries, China is willing to work together with France” to make positive contributions to resolving international hotspot issues and improving global governance, he added.

The Chinese leader's comments came as the Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Monday that it has agreed to a proposed cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.

Israel said late Monday, however, that the truce offer accepted by Hamas does not meet its key demands.

Israel’s war cabinet also decided to push ahead with an operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah “in order to apply military pressure on Hamas with the goal of making progress on freeing the hostages and the other war aims.”

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a cross-border attack led by Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people.

More than 34,700 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, the vast majority of whom have been women and children, and 78,100 others injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

​​​​​​​Earlier in the day, Xi, Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also discussed the Russia-Ukraine war, and the two European leaders urged the Chinese president to help end the war.

Xi is on a state visit to France, his first to Europe in the past five years.