UNITED NATIONS, March 22. /TASS/. The US-initiated UN Security Council draft resolution on the Middle East conflict effectively gives the green light for further escalation in the Gaza Strip, Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Zhang Jun said.

"An immediate ceasefire is a fundamental precondition for saving people’s lives, expanding humanitarian access and preventing a larger conflict. The US draft contains [only] preliminary conditions for a ceasefire, essentially greelighting further killings. This is inadmissible. The draft is also extremely unbalanced on a number of other aspects," he said.

Earlier, Algeria, China, and Russia voted down the US-initiated resolution.

"As for Israel’s repeated statements about its plans for a military operation in Rafah, the draft doesn’t express a clear and unequivocal rejection of this. This sends the wrong message and entails serious consequences," the Chinese diplomat stressed.

The US-proposed resolution points to the strong need for an immediate and lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and supports international diplomatic efforts towards the ceasefire and hostages release. It rejects any actions that might reduce the Gaza Strip’s area, including by means of establishing any buffer zones, condemns calls for displacing the Palestinian civilians, and rejects any attempts at demographic or territorial changes in the enclave. Apart from that, the resolution demands that Hamas and other armed groups immediately provide humanitarian access to the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip.

Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said earlier that the UN Security Council resolution must contain either a demand or a call for a ceasefire rather than merely note the need for it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier on Friday that Israel would not drop its plan of a military operation in the city of Rafah on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt and would begin it even without the US support.