Bloodshed, a rising number of casualties, the sight of destruction... Ruin and death dot the map where violent conflict occurs. Around 7 a.m. on October 7, the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) waged a surprise attack on Israel, firing at least 5,000 rockets into the country and launching ground attacks on the Israeli towns bordering the Palestinian enclave, the Gaza Strip.

In his televised address following the assault, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared the country was now "at war." Israel subsequently launched retaliatory airstrikes on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and imposed a complete siege on the densely inhabited area.

As of October 11, the day Israel announced it would form a national unity government, including members of the opposition and former military leaders, to direct the war, this latest military conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant group had left over 2,200 dead and over 8,000 injured.

Bitter enemies

The surprise attack came on Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday that marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public readings of the Torah, the first part of the Hebrew Bible, and nearly coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria, which began on October 6, 1973.

Palestine and Israel have been bitter enemies for decades, and their conflict has shown no signs of abating in recent years, with direct peace talks stalled in 2014 following disputes over Israeli settlements and the recognition of a Palestinian state.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state on territory captured by Israel in its 1967 Six-Day War with the states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

Hani al-Masri, Founder and Director General of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, told Xinhua News Agency that the latest escalation "threatens to drag the confrontation between Israel and Gaza militants into a large-scale war in the Gaza Strip."

Wang Jin, an international relations scholar at Northwestern University in China, believes the current conflict was "inevitable." In recent years, there has been almost no breakthrough in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli issue, while peace for the Palestinians seems a world away, he explained.

The rapid expansion of Jewish settlements in West Bank villages has already and often led to large-scale Palestinian protests, and tensions between both sides have continuously been on the rise, he added.

 

A mosque destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on October 8 (XINHUA)

On October 8, an editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz criticized the country's security forces for what it called an "intelligence and military failure." It also blamed Netanyahu for forming a far-right government with pro-settler ministers who have neglected Palestinian rights and contributed to the growing anger and frustration that played a role in the recent attack.

A deeper reason for the surprise assault may have been to disrupt talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia on normalizing their relations, Li Shaoxian, Director of the China-Arab Research Institute at Ningxia University, told Chinese newspaper Global Times.

Under U.S. mediation, Israel has been in contact with Saudi Arabia over a possible peace deal. After meeting with American President Joe Biden in New York City on September 20, Netanyahu said the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be "within reach."

Normalizing relations with Arab countries has been an important strategic goal for Israel for years. So far, six Arab countries have normalized relations with it, including Egypt and Jordan, which established diplomatic relations with Israel in the 1970s and 1990s, respectively, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, which agreed to normalize relations with Israel in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords—a set of diplomatic normalization agreements.

Many Western countries, especially the U.S., have marginalized concerns from the Palestinian side. Hamas fears that if Saudi Arabia normalizes relations with Israel, other Arab countries may follow suit, which would be destructive for the very survival of Palestine, Li further explained, adding that all forces in Palestine have called for the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a precondition for Arab countries to improve relations with Israel.

The reconciliation process in the Middle East cannot be separated from the resolution of the Palestinian issue, said Wen Shaobao, a researcher with the Middle East Studies Institutes at Shanghai International Studies University, adding if this issue is not thoroughly resolved, the reconciliations taking place in the region will be short-lived and superficial.

 

Palestinians check a damaged street following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza Strip on October 8 (XINHUA)

Two-state solution

Israel continues to be driven by anger and retaliation and is relentlessly pursuing military action in Gaza. The fighting may continue until one side is destroyed or until Israel decides it is enough to deter those who try to threaten its security, said Tian Wenlin, a researcher at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

However, Tian said Israel's actions may not achieve their intended goals of security and deterrence, and as long as there is no conclusive resolution to the Palestinian issue, the conflict between Israel and Palestine will continue. He added that as some Israeli officials have pledged to make Gaza pay a very heavy price that would change reality for generations, the outcome of the current conflict may be especially tragic.

The two-state solution, aiming to ensure that both Palestinians and Israelis can realize their legitimate aspirations, living side-by-side in peace and security, is not only the fundamental way to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but also a prerequisite for peace in the Middle East, according to Li.

At the Madrid Conference of 1991, a Middle East peace conference hosted by Spain, all parties agreed to move forward with the two-state solution, he added.

However, for more than a decade, the U.S. has turned its attention away from the peace process in the region, leaving it in a state of stagnation for a long time against the backdrop of the hardening and rightward shift of Israel's domestic politics.

The Donald Trump administration specifically abandoned its support for the two-state solution, making plans for solving the Palestine-Israel conflict without involving Palestine and then trying to force such plan on Palestine. Judging by the current course of events, the U.S. cannot make this happen, Li added.

China's proposal

In June, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a three-point proposal for resolving the Palestine-Israel conflict during his talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing, namely the fundamental solution is the establishment of an independent state of Palestine with full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital; Palestine's economic and livelihood needs should be met, and the international community must increase development and humanitarian aid to Palestine; and it is important to maintain the right direction of the peace talks.

A large-scale, more authoritative and more influential international peace conference should be convened to create conditions for the resumption of peace talks and make tangible efforts to help Palestine and Israel live in peace, Xi said.

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency closed-door meeting on the situation in the Middle East on October 8. During the consultations, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the UN, said China is gravely concerned about the clashes between Israel and armed groups in Gaza and is saddened by the numerous civilian casualties. China is also worried about the prospects of further escalation.

Zhang called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid any acceleration of violence and to agree on a ceasefire. He called for efforts to advance the two-state solution with a sense of urgency.

To end the cycle of conflict between Palestine and Israel, it is essential to resume peace talks, implement the two-state solution and settle the Palestinian issue fully and properly through political means as soon as possible, taking into account the legitimate concerns of all parties involved, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press conference on October 9, adding that China will continue to work unremittingly with the international community to this end.

（Print Edition Title: Pushing for Peace）

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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