BRICS leaders urge 'immediate' ceasefire in Israeli war on Gaza

The BRICS group of nations have called for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce in Gaza during an extraordinary summit where chair South Africa accused Israel of war crimes and "genocide" in the Palestinian territory.

Pretoria hosted a virtual meeting of BRICS - a group of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - aimed at drawing up a common response to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

"We called for an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities," the group said in a summary of the meeting.

"We reiterated our strong support for regional and international efforts aimed at achieving an immediate cessation of hostilities, ensuring the protection of civilians and the provision of humanitarian aid."

Earlier, China's President Xi Jinping called for the release of civilian detainees.

"All parties in the conflicts should immediately ceasefire and hostilities, stop all violence and attacks targeting civilians, and release civilian detainees to avoid more loss of lives and suffering," Xi said, according to Beijing's state news agency Xinhua.

He did not make specific reference to the estimated 240 hostages abducted from Israel by Hamas last month, nor to Palestinian prisoners being held by Israel.

Xi also called for an "international peace conference" to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

"There can be no sustainable peace and security in the Middle East without a just solution to the question of Palestine," Xi said, speaking through an interpreter.

"China calls for an early convening of an international peace conference that is more authoritative to build international consensus for peace," he said.

Such a conference would, Xi added, "work toward an early solution to the question of Palestine that is comprehensive, just and sustainable".

Putin seeks political settlement

Russian President Vladimir Putin has also called for a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said regional states and members of the BRICS group of countries could be involved in efforts to reach such a settlement.

In televised comments to a virtual BRICS summit, Putin once again blamed the Middle East crisis on the failure of US diplomacy in the region.

"We call for the joint efforts of the international community aimed at de-escalating the situation, a ceasefire and finding a political solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And the BRICS states and countries of the region could play a key role in this work," Putin said.

"Collective punishment": South Africa

"The collective punishment of Palestinian civilians through the unlawful use of force by Israel is a war crime. The deliberate denial of medicine, fuel, food and water to the residents of Gaza is tantamount to genocide," said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

"The concerns of the Palestinian people must be addressed in a serious and sustainable manner, this can only happen with the two-state solution that is based on peaceful coexistence," said India's foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.