China to chair UN meeting on Palestinian-Israeli issue

China, the rotating president of the United Nations Security Council for November, will hold a high-level meeting of the council on the Palestinian-Israeli issue on Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin announced.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, will travel to New York to chair the meeting, the spokesman said at a news conference on Monday.

China hopes the meeting will promote in-depth exchanges and build consensus among all parties, so that they will step up their actions to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and achieve a cease-fire.

China also hopes that the meeting will facilitate further efforts of all parties toward a comprehensive, just and lasting resolution to the Palestinian question through a "two-state solution", the spokesman said.

The world expects the UN Security Council to fulfill its primary duty to maintain international peace and security and play a constructive role in addressing the Palestine-Israel conflict starting in October, which has caused large civilian casualties and a humanitarian disaster, he said.

Noting that the council adopted Resolution 2712 earlier this month, the spokesman said the resolution was the first that the council has adopted since the conflict, as well as the first resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli issue the council has adopted since the end of 2016.

The resolution has started initial steps toward a cease-fire, and helps prevent an even larger humanitarian crisis, he said.