G7's cease-fire silence stain on their conscience

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Worldwide concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza have been growing day by day. On Friday, 70 ambassadors to the United Nations office at Geneva issued a joint call for an immediate cease-fire and international action to end the bloodshed and suffering in Gaza. They also urged the international community "to exert maximum pressure" to ensure emergency humanitarian access and assistance to the Palestinian enclave.

According to local health authorities in Gaza, more than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military campaign to debilitate Hamas and remove it from power. Children, women and the elderly account for 75 percent of the victims, and upwards of 26,000 people have been injured. These appalling figures should be intolerable to anyone.

Yet that is not the case judging by the joint statement issued after the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Japan last week, which failed to call for a cease-fire. These Western countries, led by the United States, like to portray themselves as champions of human rights and habitually preach about human rights abuses worldwide. Yet their collective silence on what is unfolding in Gaza is deafening.

The G7 only parroted recent rhetoric from the White House and called for "humanitarian pauses and corridors to facilitate urgently needed assistance" rather than a cease-fire.

In response, Israel, which has no clear endgame for its offensive bar wrathful retribution for the Hamas attacks, only agreed to implement a four-hour daily humanitarian pause starting Thursday, while at the same time declaring that its forces would intensify their campaign in the heart of Gaza City in the next few days. The US and Western countries obviously have a lot of leverage on Israel. They should exert more pressure on Tel Aviv. That they have so far failed to do so only lays bare their hypocrisy and double standard on human rights.

As Zhang Jun, Chinese permanent representative to the UN, rightly pointed out on Friday, a cease-fire is imperative as it is the only hope for the people of Gaza to survive. The fact that roughly 100 Palestinian children are dying every day should prompt the international community, including the G7 countries, to bring Israel to its senses.

As the G7 foreign ministers said in their statement, Israelis and Palestinians have an equal right to live in safety, dignity and peace. All countries, including the G7, should put aside geopolitical considerations and focus their efforts on securing a cease-fire and work toward the realization of the two-state solution that is the only viable way to initiate an end to the cycle of violence between the two sides.