2025年8月21日，上外中东研究所刘中民教授就以色列推进占领加沙计划接受Global Times采访，全文如下：
Israel pushes Gaza City assault despite mounting global calls for ceasefire
Israel pressed ahead with the first stages of its planned assault on Gaza City on Wednesday, mobilizing 60,000 reservists in an expanded operation, despite mounting global calls for a ceasefire, NBC News reported. The escalation came as the US announced sanctions on four International Criminal Court (ICC) officials in a move an analyst said underscored Washington's continued backing for Israel.
We have begun the preliminary actions and the initial stages of the offensive on Gaza City, and already now IDF forces are holding positions on the outskirts of Gaza City, Israeli military spokesman Effie Defrin was quoted as saying by NBC.
The operation immediately drew international condemnation. The UN human rights office said Israel's widespread destruction of residential buildings in Gaza City, combined with the forced displacement of the city's entire population and those remaining in northern Gaza without shelter, food or medical supplies — and no indication they would be allowed to return — constituted violations of international law and grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
According to Al Jazeera on Thursday, entire neighborhoods have come under constant Israeli bombardment. Residents on the ground report that the sound of drones and jets never leaves the sky, while people continue to move through streets filled with debris, searching for food and shelter, to no avail.
The broadcaster reported that at least five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli drone attack northwest of Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, while another strike near Rafah killed one person and injured at least 15 others.
Calls for restraint have escalated. UN Secretary General António Guterres plans to renew calls for an immediate ceasefire in order to avoid the death and destruction that an assault would inevitably cause, the BBC reported. French President Emmanuel Macron also warned on X that Israel's military offensive can only lead to disaster for both peoples and risks plunging the entire region into a cycle of permanent war. France will co-chair with Saudi Arabia a conference on the two-state solution in New York this September, which Macron called the only credible way forward.
An analyst said Israel's decision to recruit more soldiers signals its determination to expand the offensive regardless of international outcry. Israel's established policy in Gaza is unlikely to change. Even in the face of widespread opposition, the government is pressing ahead with its plan to occupy Gaza, Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times.
Liu said that such actions will further fragment Palestinian progress toward statehood by depriving Palestinians of territory, population and sovereignty needed for an independent state.
The escalation coincides with new US sanctions on ICC officials. On Wednesday, the US State Department announced measures targeting four ICC figures — judges Kimberly Prost of Canada and Nicolas Guillou of France, and deputy prosecutors Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji and Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal. Washington said the sanctions were intended to impose tangible and significant consequences on those directly engaged in the ICC's transgressions against the US and Israel.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the ICC is a national security threat that has been an instrument for lawfare against the US and our close ally Israel, according to UN News. In response, the ICC strongly rejected the sanctions, calling them a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution and an affront against the Court's States Parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world.
According to Liu, Israel's ability to sustain large-scale military operations in Gaza, despite mounting pressure, is inseparable from its US backing. While Washington may voice discontent over some specific Israeli policies, its broader stance has consistently emphasized support for Israel, Liu noted.
Some US politicians have defended Israel's interests even above the US' as shown by repeated US vetoes of UN ceasefire resolutions that have left the organization paralyzed on the Palestinian question, Liu said.
On Wednesday, in response to media inquiries about how China sees the situation in Gaza, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that China is closely following the situation in Gaza and hopes an early ceasefire arrangement can be reached to deescalate the situation and ease the humanitarian crisis.
On August 8, when asked to comment on Israel's security cabinet approving a plan proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military to take control of Gaza City, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China was gravely concerned about the decision and urged Israel to stop the dangerous move at once.
来源：Global Times
（本文观点仅为作者或被访者个人观点，不代表本研究机构立场）
