China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday called for the establishment of a Palestinian state and a ceasefire in Gaza, where 100 days of the Israel-Hamas war have killed thousands.

In a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in Cairo, the top Chinese diplomat said: “It is necessary to insist on the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign state of Palestine on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

A joint statement from the two ministers urged an immediate end “to all acts of violence, killing, and targeting of civilians and civilian establishments.”

Wang additionally discussed the conflict with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, according to Chinese state media Xinhua, with both sides agreeing a ceasefire “should be achieved as soon as possible to prevent the conflict from further spilling over.”

The war broke out when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel on October 7, murdering some 1,200 people, mostly civilians butchered in their homes and at a music festival, and kidnapping over 240 to Gaza, prompting an Israeli military campaign aimed at vanquishing Hamas and returning the hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 23,968 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, though the figure cannot be independently verified and is believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, some as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 9,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

Shoukry and Wang called for “an international summit for peace to find a just, comprehensive, and lasting solution to the Palestinian cause by ending the occupation and establishing an independent, contiguous Palestinian state.”

The Gaza Strip has been ruled by Hamas since it took over in a bloody coup in 2007, while the West Bank is the seat of the Palestinian Authority, Hamas’s rivals. Both were seized by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War, although Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005. It later imposed a blockade on the Strip, aimed at isolating Hamas and preventing the terror group from arming.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has previously called for an “international peace conference” to resolve the fighting.

China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Wang is currently on an African tour that will see him also visit Togo, Tunisia, and Ivory Coast.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.