Egypt, China call for immediate cease-fire in Gaza

Egypt and China on Sunday called for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip as Israel's deadly offensive continued on its 100th day.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi held talks in Cairo with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

A statement by the Egyptian Presidency said the talks took up regional and international developments, especially the escalating Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Sisi and Wang expressed their categorical rejection of the forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, the statement said.

"Egypt and China also underscored their positions about the vital need to comply with international law, reiterating their vehement and categorical rejection of individual and collective forced transfer or forced displacement of the Palestinians from their lands," it added.

They also agreed on the necessity of addressing the root causes of the Palestinian issue through a just and comprehensive settlement and establishing an independent Palestinian state based on the two-state solution.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas which Tel Aviv says killed 1,200 people.

At least 23,968 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 60,582 injured, according to Palestinian health authorities.

According to the UN, 85% of the population of Gaza is already internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.