Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 34,388

The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip from the ongoing Israeli attacks had risen to 34,388, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said on Saturday.

In a press statement, the ministry said that the Israeli army had carried out four military operations in the past 24 hours which killed 32 Palestinians and wounded 69 others, bringing the total injuries to 77,437 in addition to the death toll since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct. 7, 2023.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement on Saturday that Israeli aircraft had launched strikes against some 25 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day. One drone strike hit a rocket launching position in southern Gaza's Khan Younis. In central Gaza, buildings used by Palestinian armed groups, weapon depots, underground sites, and other infrastructure were hit overnight, the IDF said, adding another airstrike directed by troops also struck a vehicle with eight Hamas operatives in it.

The official Palestinian News Agency also reported on Saturday that at least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded on Friday evening in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. In addition, on early Saturday, an airstrike hit a house in Rafah, southern Gaza, killing six people, including four children.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Portuguese counterpart Paulo Rangel on Saturday held a phone talk on the developments in the Gaza Strip, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

In the phone conversation, Amir-Abdollahian strongly urged an end to Israel's "war and genocide" in Gaza and respect for the oppressed Palestinian people's rights, deeming Israel "the root cause" for all regional tensions.

Rangel, for his part, stressed the need to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Rangel also said that his government supports the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

China's current account surplus stood at 39.2 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, official data showed Friday.

The current account surplus to gross domestic product ratio was 0.9 percent during the period, according to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

The surplus from trade in goods came in at U.S. 121.1 billion U.S. dollars, of which the value of goods exported amounted to 751.1 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of two percent. Meanwhile, imports stood at 630 billion U.S. dollars, marking a three percent increase compared with the same period last year, the data showed.

The released figures also showed that China's equity and investment fund shares of assets posted a net outflow of 25.7 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter and the country's equity and investment fund shares of liabilities recorded a net inflow of 19 billion U.S. dollars.