Beijing: China on Monday strongly condemned the perpetrators of atrocity at Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. “We are deeply shocked and strongly condemn the perpetrators of the atrocity,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian said during his regular briefing.

He was responding to a question regarding hundreds of bodies which were found days ago buried deep in the ground at Nasser Hospital and Al-Shifa Hospital.

Lin Jian said that vast swaths of Gaza were now left in rubble, with over a million civilians struggling in despair on the brink of death.

“The fact that this is even happening in the 21st century is an outrage to the moral conscience of humanity, and tramples on the most fundamental aspect of international justice,” he added.

The spokesperson said that more than 200 days had passed since October 7, and the conflict in Gaza had caused over 100,000 causalities and displaced over a million. Jin Jian said,”A humanitarian catastrophe that should never have happened continues to unfold before our eyes. The biggest imperative is to put in place a ceasefire as soon as possible. This is the number one overriding priority in Gaza.”

 He said that the relevant country must no longer turn a deaf ear to the call for justice from people with conscience across the world. “It must no longer talk about the need of a ceasefire while pouring weapons into the conflict, and talk about aid while creating obstacles for humanitarian access.

“It must immediately implement relevant UN Security Council resolutions, realize unconditional and durable ceasefire, and take concrete action to end this biggest humanitarian tragedy in the 21st century once and for all.”

He said as Foreign Minister Wang Yi noted in the written interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera Media Network, the Gaza calamity showed once again that the perpetual denial of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people was the root cause of the Palestinian question, and was is also the core issue of the Middle East question.

Jin Jian said that China would continue to strengthen solidarity and cooperation with the Middle East countries and the whole international community to firmly support the just cause of the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate national rights; firmly support internal reconciliation among different factions of Palestine through dialogue; firmly support Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations at an early date; and firmly support establishing the independent State of Palestine and realizing “the Palestinians governing Palestine.”

“We call for a more broad-based, more authoritative and more effective international peace conference to set a timetable and a roadmap for the two-state solution, to promote comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Palestinian question, and to ultimately realize peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine as well as harmony between the Arab and Jewish peoples,” he added.

Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary from May 5 to 10, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced on Monday.

 President Xi will be undertaking the visits at the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron of the Republic of France, President Aleksandar Vučić of the Republic of Serbia, and President Tam Sulyok and Prime Minister Viktor Orb¡n of Hungary.

Later, in response to a question about the program and expectation of the upcoming visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Jin Jian told media during his regular briefing that President Xi would be visiting any European country after five years.

The visit will be the Chinese president’s first trip to Europe in the past nearly five years. He said that these visits are widely important for China’s relations with France, Serbia, Hungary and European Union (EU) at large and would provide new impetus for the global peace and development.

Islamabad: The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Senators on Monday demanded the Upper House of the Parliament to direct for a probe into social media propaganda on government’s alleged intention to tax solar power consumers.

PPPP Senator Palmas Mohammad Zai Khan while taking to the floor on point of order demanded the House to take note of the issue as social media hearsays led to huge outcry in the public already burdened by skyrocketing inflation and rise in gas and electricity tariffs.

Senator Khan said, “If there is any idea to tax solar power consuming households then it’s tantamount to a conspiracy against the sitting government and an wise move that will further break the backbone of the masses already battered by price hike and poor economic situation.”

She said the newspapers had given wide coverage to the story that forced the power division to issue an informal statement brushing aside all the claims levelled in the social media’s misleading information.

Senator Palwasha Khan announced at the floor of the House that if there was going to be any such decision then it would be resisted from the floor.

“Pakistan has produced some 7,000 megawatts of electricity from renewable energy sources in just eight months that gives huge impetus to shift over cheaper energy sources,” she said.

Chipping in her discussion, PPPP Parliamentary leader in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman said the issue surfaced on Saturday weekend that was against the state and country’s ambitions and also the vision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Senator Rehman said she took to X formerly Twitter, to condemn the development and wrote three posts demanding the Prime Minister to take notice of the matter.

She said it was not only the solar power units that were going to be charged but also the net metering system was going to be altered that would completely break this industry.

 “There have been many calls and messages from green energy investing companies, diplomats and foreign missions investing in green energy initiatives in the country.

They asked me that should we take our investment back or close our endeavours for renewables rollout,” Senator Rehman said. “The Power Ministry has furnished an informal statement rejecting all such allegations whereas it is pertinent that this should not have happened,” she said.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator, Irfan Siddiqui termed the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Aoun Abbas Bappi accusations of legislation intended to provide extension in the age of the judges as speculations and forbade him to avoid making such concocted statements that may instigate a controversy on media.

He said he would endorse Senator Bappi’s stance for ensuring safeguard of honourable judges prestige and honour and all such efforts to tarnish their reputation would be condemned from his party.