NEW YORK — China's Ambassador to the United Nations Fu Cong said on Friday that the UN Security Council should re-examine its decision to terminate the mandate of the longstanding peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Fu spoke to reporters at UN headquarters in New York as China assumed the Security Council's rotating presidency for May.

"We do believe that we should revisit the decision, actually, to withdraw the UNIFIL." Fu told reporters that a genuine ceasefire did not exist in Lebanon and characterized the conflict as a "lesser fire." China is waiting for a report from the UN secretariat expected in June before taking its position.

"I think at least the view of the overwhelming majority of the Security Council is that this is not the time to really, to withdraw the UNIFIL out of that part of the country." He also said: "It is incumbent on Israel to stop this bombardment of Lebanon."

The Security Council unanimously resolved last year to begin withdrawing the UNIFIL mission's 10,800 international peacekeepers by December 2026. UNIFIL was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops after the 1978 invasion. Its mandate was expanded after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, and the mission was made responsible for a demilitarized buffer between the opposing sides.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon since March 2 have killed 2,618 people and forced more than one million to flee their homes, according to Lebanese authorities. Since the same date, at least six UN peacekeepers have been killed and many others injured in the conflict, according to UN officials. The peacekeeper deaths include soldiers from Indonesia and France who were caught in shelling incidents and roadside attacks.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the incidents in which UN peacekeepers were attacked while clearing explosive ordnance and escorting logistics convoys.