Coastal blaze triggers evacuation orders, days after state of emergency declared over fires on Aegean island of Chios.

A fast-moving wildfire has engulfed holiday homes and forest land on a section of the Greek coastline just 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, Athens.

More than 100 firefighters, supported by two dozen firefighting aircraft, battled the wildfire that tore across the coastal area of Palaia Fokaia on Thursday, officials said. The flames were whipped up by high winds as temperatures approached 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in the country’s first heatwave of the summer.

Fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told reporters that 40 people had been evacuated by police, with evacuation orders issued for a total of five areas. A seaside roadway running across the affected areas was protectively cordoned off, he added.

The coastguard said two patrol boats and nine private vessels were on standby in the Palaia Fokaia area in case an evacuation by sea became necessary.

“We’re telling people to leave their homes,” local town councillor Apostolos Papadakis said on Greece’s state-run ERT television.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known, but the fire department spokesman said that an arson investigation unit had been sent to the area.

Local mayor Dimitris Loukas said on ERT television that several houses were believed to have been damaged by the blaze.

The wider Athens area, as well as several Aegean islands, were on Level 4 of a 5-level scale measuring the risk of wildfires owing to the weather conditions, with the heatwave expected to last until the weekend.

Early in the week, hundreds of firefighters took four days to bring a major wildfire under control on the eastern Aegean island of Chios, where a state of emergency was declared and more than a dozen evacuation orders issued.

The fire department said one woman had been arrested on suspicion of having contributed to the sparking of that fire.

Greece has spent hundreds of millions of euros to compensate households and farmers for damage related to extreme weather and to acquire new equipment to deal with wildfires.

It has increased its number of firefighters to a record 18,000 this year.

Scientists say human-caused climate change is contributing to extreme weather conditions and extending heatwaves for billions of people across the world.

Three Palestinians have been shot dead after dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities say.

Video footage from Kafr Malik, near Ramallah, on Wednesday night showed a car and a home on fire and Palestinians running away as gunfire is heard.

The Israeli military said forces deployed to the scene found settlers and villagers throwing stones at each other. It added that several “terrorists” opened fire and threw stones at the forces, who returned fire and identified hits. They also arrested five Israelis.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said settlers fired at villagers in their homes during what it called their “terrorist assault”.

The ministry also said Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the wounded and obstructed fire crews from entering the village for several hours.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state – in the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year – although Israel disputes this.

Shortly after the incident in Kafr Malik, there was another attack in the Palestinian community of Dar Fazaa, near the village of Taybeh.

Israeli human rights group BTselem said three people were injured and three cars were torched. It posted CCTV footage showing a group of at least 10 masked men setting one car on fire and throwing stones.

“The settler violence and rampage, under the protection of the occupation army, is a political decision by the Israeli government, implemented by the settlers,” Palestinian Vice-President Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on X.

“The Israeli government’s behaviour and decisions are pushing the region toward an explosion. We call on the international community to urgently intervene to protect our Palestinian people.”

There has been a sharp increase in the number and severity of settler attacks in the West Bank since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.

The UN has recorded 487 attacks by settlers resulting in casualties or property damage in the first four months of this year, including 122 in April. At least 181 Palestinians were reportedly injured by settlers in the attacks.

Human rights organisations and witnesses say the Israeli military and police frequently stand by while settlers attack Palestinian towns and villages.

Settlement expansion has also risen sharply, since a right-wing, pro-settler governing coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in late 2022.

It has so far decided to establish 49 new settlements and begin the legalisation process for seven settler outposts which were built without government authorisation, according to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now.

Last month, Israeli ministers said 22 new settlements had been approved across the length and width of the West Bank, hailing it as a move that “prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the town of al-Yamoun, near Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The Israeli military said “terrorists” threw explosive devices at its forces during an operation in al-Yamoun. Afterwards, they approached while holding additional explosives and the forces responded by opening fire, it added.

The UN says at least 949 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since 7 October 2023, as Israeli forces have intensified their raids across the territory, saying they are trying to stem deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis.

In January, Israeli forces launched a large-scale operation against Palestinian armed groups in the northern West Bank.

The UN’s human rights chief said in April that the operation had destroyed entire refugee camps and makeshift medical sites, and displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians, who had been told not to return to their homes for a year.

Through the 12 days of the recent Israel-Iran conflict, China moved quickly to position itself as a potential mediator and voice of reason amid a spiralling regional crisis.

The day after Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran on June 13, Beijing reached out to both sides to express its desire for a mediated solution even as the country’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, condemned Israel’s actions as a violation of international law.

Chinese President Xi Jinping soon followed with calls for de-escalation, while at the United Nations Security Council, China joined Russia and Pakistan in calling for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”.

When Iran threatened to blockade the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes, Beijing was also quick to speak out.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead called for the “international community to step up efforts to de-escalate conflicts and prevent regional turmoil from having a greater impact on global economic development”.

Beijing’s stance throughout the conflict remained true to its longstanding noninterference approach to foreign hostilities. But experts say it did little to help shore up its ambition of becoming an influential player in the Middle East, and instead exposed the limitations of its clout in the region.

Why China was worried

Unlike some countries, and the United States in particular, China traditionally approaches foreign policy “through a lens of strategic pragmatism rather than ideological solidarity”, said Evangeline Cheng, a research associate at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.

This approach means China will always focus on protecting its economic interests, of which it has many in the Middle East, Cheng told Al Jazeera.

China has investments in Israel’s burgeoning tech sector and its Belt and Road infrastructure project spans Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Critically, China relies on the Middle East for more than half of its crude oil imports, and it’s the top consumer of Iranian oil. A protracted war would have disrupted its oil supplies, as would an Iranian blockade of the strategically important Strait of Hormuz – something threatened by Tehran’s parliament during the conflict.

“War and security instability not only undermines Chinese investment and trade and business… but also the oil price and gas energy security in general,” said Alam Saleh, a senior Lecturer in Iranian Studies at the Australian National University.

“Therefore, China seeks stability, and it disagrees and opposes any kind of military solution for any type of conflict and confrontations, no matter with whom,” he said.

John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that China’s top concern through the conflict was to avoid “skyrocketing oil prices” that would threaten its energy security.

Flexing diplomatic muscle, protecting economic might

Aware of China’s friendly relations with Iran and Beijing’s economic fears, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Beijing to keep Tehran from closing the Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire negotiations stumbled forward this week.

It was a brief moment of acknowledgement of Beijing’s influence, but experts say China’s overall diplomatic influence remains limited.

“China’s offer to mediate highlights its desire to be seen as a responsible global player, but its actual leverage remains limited,” Cheng said. “Without military capabilities or deep political influence in the region, and with Israel wary of Beijing’s ties to Iran, China’s role is necessarily constrained.”

To be sure, Beijing has demonstrated its ability to broker major diplomatic deals in the region. In 2023, it mediated the normalisation of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. While seen as a huge diplomatic win for China, experts say Beijing owed much of its success to fellow mediators, Oman and Iraq. China also mediated an agreement between Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, in July 2024, under which they committed to working together on Gaza’s governance after the end of Israel’s ongoing war on the enclave.

But William Yang, a senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said the odds were stacked against China from the beginning of the latest conflict due to Israel’s wariness towards its relationship with Iran.

In 2021, China and Iran signed a 25-year “strategic partnership”, and Iran is an active participant in the Belt and Road project. Iran has also joined the Beijing-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and this year took part in China’s “Maritime Security Belt” naval exercises.

Iran’s “resolute opposition to American hegemony” also aligns well with China’s diplomatic interests more broadly, compared with Israel’s close ties to the US, Yang said.

China’s dilemma

It’s a scenario that could be repeated in the future, he said.

“This case also reinforces the dilemma that China faces: while it wants to be viewed as a great power that is capable of mediating in major global conflicts, its close relationship with specific parties in some of the ongoing conflicts diminishes Beijing’s ability to play such a role,” Yang said.

For now, Beijing will continue to rely on the US as a security guarantor in the region, he added.

“It’s clear that China will continue to focus on deepening economic engagement with countries in the Middle East while taking advantage of the US presence in the region, which remains the primary security guarantor for regional countries,” Yang said.

“On the other hand, the US involvement in the conflict, including changing the course of the war by bombing Iranian nuclear sites, creates the condition for China to take the moral high ground in the diplomatic sphere and present itself as the more restrained, calm and responsible major power,” he said.