China’s permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong Photo: VCG

China’s permanent representative to the United Nations Fu Cong denounced the indiscriminate attacks on Lebanese civilians through wireless communication device explosions as “outrageous” and “something unheard of in history,” while calling for Israel to abandon its reliance on force and refrain from further risky actions that could plunge the Middle East into new disasters.

Fu expressed deep concern over the potential escalation of tensions between Lebanon and Israel during an emergency session of the UN Security Council, and urged all parties to exercise “maximum restraint.”

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border have been escalating since October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in support of Hamas. The latest explosions of pagers and handheld radios across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday have resulted in 37 deaths and 2,931 injuries, the Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday, citing Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad.

Fu said the attack using remote-controlled communication devices, which caused mass civilian casualties and panic, is something “unheard of in history,” and such actions constitute “a serious violation of a nation’s sovereignty and security, a blatant breach of international law, particularly humanitarian law, and a complete disregard for human life.” 

“The brutality of the attack and its heinous nature are outrageous and deserve the strongest condemnation. China called for a comprehensive and timely investigation into the incident to hold the planners and perpetrators accountable,” Fu said.

“The destruction of a nation’s critical infrastructure using these tools as weapons has set a dangerous precedent and could provoke other terrorist or extremist forces. This not only highlights the immediate severity of the situation, but also exposes potential future security risks and hidden dangers,” Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road at Lanzhou University, told the Global Times on Saturday.

The Chinese envoy also emphasized the precariousness of the current situation in the Middle East, as Israel on one hand continues its ongoing military actions in Gaza that have claimed the lives of more than 40,000 Palestinians, while on the other hand escalating tensions along its border with Lebanon.

China specifically called on Israel to abandon its reliance on force, immediately cease its military operations in Gaza, stop infringing on Lebanon's sovereignty and security, and refrain from further risky actions that could plunge the region into new disasters, Fu said.

Israeli launched an air strike on the southern suburb of Lebanon’s capital Beirut, killing at least 14 people with another 66 wounded, including five children, said Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on Friday. Lebanese group Hezbollah’s senior commander Ibrahim Aqil was also downed in the attack, the group has confirmed, Al Jazeera reported on Friday. 

Multiple aerial bombs exploded around the camp of China's 22nd batch of peacekeeping troops in Lebanon on Thursday. The shockwaves and debris from the explosions damaged some facilities in the camp, but fortunately no one was injured, China Central Television reported on Saturday. The troops were in the midst of their daily peak physical training at the time of the explosions, and the bombing took place just 730 meters away from the camp, the report said.