Photo: A girl was rescued from the ruins caused by Israeli air strikes on the 16th/ Reuters

The comprehensive Guardian, CNN and the Israel Times reported that the Israeli Palestinian conflict continued to escalate. On the 16th, Israel air raided Gaza and razed three buildings, killing at least 42 people, including many children. This was the deadliest attack in the week since the outbreak of the conflict. On the 16th, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi presided over the emergency open meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the Israeli Palestinian conflict by video and delivered a speech, urging all parties to immediately stop hostilities and restart political dialogue as soon as possible. British media pointed out that the United States twice blocked the Security Council from issuing statements on this issue last week and tried to prevent the public meeting on the 16th. Its blind support for Israel is facing international isolation.

Many countries and international organizations around the world have recently criticized Israel's air strikes against Palestinian civilians and called on all parties to cease fire. However, Israel continued to carry out intensive air strikes on Gaza on the 16th. Shortly after midnight, a residential building and shop in central Gaza were destroyed, killing at least 42 people, including 16 women and 10 children, and injuring 50 others. News pictures show that many people were buried under the rubble, and rescue workers dug out children's bodies from the rubble. At present, the search and rescue work is still in progress.

Israel also bombed the residence of senior Hamas general Shinwar and his brother of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, but did not disclose the casualties. Since the week of Israeli Palestinian conflict, at least 188 Palestinians have died in Gaza, including 33 women, 55 children and 1230 injured. In Israel, eight people died, including a 5-year-old child and a soldier.

Washington faces international isolation

The Israeli Palestinian conflict has attracted the attention of the international community. As the rotating president of the United Nations Security Council in May, China has promoted the Council to hold two emergency consultations on this issue and hosted an emergency open meeting on the 16th.

The Guardian pointed out that the United States was bent on favoring Israel and obstructed the Security Council's closed meeting on the 10th and 12th, which led to the Council's failure to reach consensus and take action on the Israeli Palestinian conflict. The United States Mission to the United Nations had agreed to issue a statement calling for the pacification of the conflict, but Washington opposed it and claimed that "the time has not come". Gao En, the head of the United Nations International Crisis Group, criticized that the United States constantly urged other Security Council members to speak up on issues such as Myanmar, and mentioned that Israel has begun to play dumb, which is a naked contradiction and double standards.

The United States also tried to use the special meeting provisions during the COVID-19 epidemic to prevent the convening of the emergency public meeting. China, Norway and Tunisia proposed to hold a public meeting on the 14th, but the United States insisted on postponing it to the 18th. Turkey and some Arab countries could not bear the delay tactics of the United States, and proposed to resolve the matter at the United Nations General Assembly. The United States was unable to exercise its veto power in the General Assembly, and was expected to be isolated when 193 member countries voted collectively, facing the embarrassing situation of no support as in the Trump era. A diplomatic official of the United Nations revealed that Washington agreed to hold a meeting on the 16th after being told that it would lose face in the United Nations General Assembly if it only played devil's advocate.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi pointed out on the 15th that the position of the United States in the Israeli Palestinian conflict stands on the opposite side of international justice. He stressed that the root cause of the deterioration of the Israeli Palestinian situation was the long-term failure of a just solution to the Palestinian question, especially the continued violation of the Palestinian right to an independent state. The fundamental solution to the problem lies in the implementation of the "two State solution". The Security Council should reconfirm this and urge Israel and Palestine to restart peace talks on this basis as soon as possible.

Disagreements within the Democratic Party deepened

Washington has always avoided criticizing Israel, but with the increasing number of Palestinian casualties and the razing of the Associated Press office building in Gaza, President Biden of the United States is facing tremendous pressure at home and abroad, and the Democratic Party also doubts that Biden's government's support for "multilateralism" and "human rights" has become empty talk. Democratic Senator Horen of Maryland said frankly that Israel has violated international law since the trigger of the Israeli Palestinian conflict and the forced relocation of Palestinians. "If the Biden administration places the rule of law and human rights at the core of its foreign policy, it should not just say something perfunctory now."

On the 15th, Biden respectively talked with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President Abbas to discuss the Israeli Palestinian conflict. He expressed concern about civilian casualties and the safety of journalists, but he was still partial to Israel and demanded that Hamas stop firing rockets at Israel.