China slams Israel for building settlements in occupied Palestinian territories

ANKARA

China on Friday slammed Israel for building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and said Beijing opposes any unilateral change to Jerusalem’s status and status quo shaped by history.

During a regular press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that China opposes Israel building settlements on the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We believe that the issue of Jerusalem’s status should be settled through negotiations by parties concerned in accordance with relevant UN resolutions," Wang said.

"As Palestinian-Israeli tensions continue to escalate and the risk of spillover of the conflict in Gaza heightens, relevant parties need to be prudent and avoid any move that might lead to escalation or get the situation to spiral out of control," he added.

Earlier this month, Israeli rights group Ir Amim said that Israeli authorities are exploiting the war on Gaza to build a new settlement in the occupied East Jerusalem.

According to the group, which monitors the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Jerusalem, the new settlement is the first settlement plan to be fully approved by the Israeli government since 2012.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.

Estimates indicate that about 700,000 Israeli settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank, adjacent to East Jerusalem.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.

International observers have said Israeli settlements are designed to preempt any attempt to form a geographically contiguous state, including the now-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid