Wang Yi urges Israel to halt West Bank settlements

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israel’s president to stop and reverse the forced setting up of West Bank settlements, Beijing said on Friday.

Wang Yi met President Isaac Herzog on Thursday, on the margins of a regional security summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. The event was the seventh edition of a regional gathering on building trust and cooperation. China’s foreign ministry then released its account of the talks.

According to that statement, the minister also asked Israel to reopen access to Gaza at once. He warned that two million civilians were struggling on the brink of survival.

Wang Yi presses for Gaza access

The statement quoted him as saying the urgent task was to “fully reopen access to the Gaza Strip.” In his view, that step would stop a humanitarian catastrophe from spreading.

He added that Israel should end its “forced establishment” of settlements in the occupied West Bank. Both steps, he argued, matter most right now.

Wang Yi told Herzog that China sees the Palestinian question as “the greatest historical injustice of this century.” Beijing also backs a two-state solution, which he called “the correct path to resolving it.”

Wang Yi on peace in the region

The minister described peace and reconciliation as the cornerstone of China’s Middle East policy. Without dialogue and consultation, he said, lasting calm cannot take hold. Wang Yi noted that the regional situation remained tense.

He stressed that both Jewish and Palestinian people have the right to live in peace and to set up independent states. Beijing, he said, is ready to work with others to bring all sides back to talks.

In addition, he pointed to a series of proposals from President Xi Jinping this year. China wants a shared and lasting security framework for the region, he said.

Settlers and the Gaza truce

China has long backed the Palestinian cause, and it keeps close ties with Iran, Israel’s chief rival in the region. As a result, the remarks fit Beijing’s familiar line.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu governs with far-right allies, and his government has stepped up approvals for new settlements. Over half a million Israeli settlers now live in the occupied West Bank, land that Israel has held since 1967. International law treats those settlements as illegal.

Settlers carried out an average of six attacks a day on Palestinians in the year’s first half, the United Nations has reported, ranging from beatings to vandalism and arson.

Last week, settlers attacked a photographer for a foreign news agency while he covered the harvest. The assault fractured his ribs, and the men stole his camera.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s health ministry says Israel has kept breaching the ceasefire, killing 1,505 Palestinians since the truce took hold. The same ministry says more than 74,000 people have died since October 2023.

Analysts say that tally is an undercount, and some put the real toll near 200,000.

For now, the call by Wang Yi adds diplomatic weight to the demand that Israel halt its settlement drive and let aid reach Gaza.