ISTANBUL 

China on Friday urged Israel to “work hard” for regional peace and engage in negotiations, warning violence won’t bring security.

“We firmly oppose any attempt that violates the security in the Middle East,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing.

Expressing ‘deep concern’ about the escalating Middle East situation, Lin added: “We oppose any attempt to harm the civilians and to escalate the situation.”

Lin was addressing a question on Israeli attacks on Qatar, Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, and Syria amid Tel Aviv's genocidal war on the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

Amid the ongoing war on Gaza, which has killed 64,700 people, negotiations for a ceasefire have failed.

“Violence will not bring security. Force will not bring peace. We urge relevant sides, especially Israel, to work hard for the recovery of the regional peace and engage in negotiations, rather than the other way,” said the spokesman.

Beijing’s comments came as Israel faced the wrath of UN Security Council members on Thursday, who strongly criticized Israel's Tuesday airstrikes on Qatari capital Doha, denouncing the assault as a reckless violation of sovereignty that threatens to sabotage fragile peace efforts in the Middle East.

China's UN envoy Fu Cong said Beijing "resolutely opposes this and strongly condemns such an act," stressing that "military means and the indiscriminate use of force are not the way out of this problem."

Without singling out the US, he said that "this incident is closely related to the longstanding differing positions of some non-regional countries regarding the Middle East issue."

Without explicitly naming Israel, the 15-member council condemned the attack on Qatar, and urged all sides to "seize the opportunity for peace,” while failing to name Israel.

At least six people, including five Hamas members, were killed in the Israeli attack in Doha.