US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated that a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state is the way out of continued violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
"I think there's an extraordinary opportunity before Israel in the months ahead to actually once and for all end that cycle," Blinken said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has categorically rejected calls for an independent Palestine, including in recent remarks following a call with US President Joe Biden.
But Blinken said that Israel has the opportunity make major diplomatic advances by making progress toward a two-state solution, as "virtually every Arab country now genuinely wants to integrate Israel into the region to normalize relations."
It is "more urgent than ever to proceed to a Palestinian state, one that also ensures the security of Israel and makes the necessary commitments to do so," Blinken said.
Doing so could result in an integrated region where Iran is isolated and "Israel is secure in ways that it's never been before," Blinken said.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi called for a ceasefire in Israel's ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, saying that the fighting must stop and humanitarian aid corridors are urgently needed.
The Chinese minister also said that the only way for Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace was through a two-state solution that recognizes an independent Palestinian state.
"This is the longest-lasting injustice in our world," Wang said of the Palestinian plight.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who spoke on the same panel with Blinken, stressed his own country's support for a two-state solution as well.
"We have maintained that position for many decades and I think today many more countries in the world ... feel not just that the two state solution is necessary, but it is more urgent than it was before," Jaishankar said.
Israel's plans to expand its military operations in Rafah, an overcrowded city in the southern Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter, again met strong international criticism at the Munich Security Conference.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was among several world leaders to speak out against an attack, and European Union diplomats attempted to put together a unanimous appeal on the subject.
More than 1 million Palestinians currently live in Rafah, which has been turned into a sprawling tent city on the border with Egypt. Most of them are refugees displaced from other parts of the Gaza Strip.
Nearly every European Union country supported a joint appeal calling on Israel not to launch a full-scale ground attack into Rafah, multiple EU diplomats confirmed to dpa.
Only Hungary acted to block the joint EU statement, the diplomats said.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell pushed for the joint appeal on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference and said he hoped unanimity could be reached to "formally" urge Israel not to invade the southern Gaza city.
Instead Borrell had to issue a statement alone as the European Union's top diplomat, calling on the "Israeli government not to take military action in Rafah that would worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian situation."
"With regard to Rafah, I am currently very concerned about the possible consequences of the planned ground offensive," Scholz told Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper in an interview.
In a speech shortly afterwards on Saturday, Scholz described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as catastrophic.
The chancellor also reiterated Germany's demand that Israel move toward a two-state solution that would include recognizing an independent Palestinian state existing peacefully alongside Israel.
Like Blinken, Scholz said that clear that progress toward a two-state settlement is necessary for good relations between Israel and neighbouring countries.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has firmly rejected that possibility. Palestinian extremist movement Hamas, which is considered a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel, also does not support a two-state peace deal.
Israel's months-long offensive against the Gaza Strip was launched after Hamas, which controls the territory, launched unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7.
About 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led attacks, many of them civilians slain in bloody massacres.
"Obeying international law and the rules is something which is not just something we do because we subscribed [to] some agreements globally. It is something which is coming out of our perspective of human kind and how we want to be and how we want to see ourselves," Scholz said.
Nonetheless, Scholz again stressed that Israel could count on German backing and reiterated Germany's support for Israel's right to self-defence.
