Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

An experienced Chinese medical team on Friday successfully completed a groundbreaking remote robotic surgical operation at a frontier practical conference.

Led by Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) academician Zhang Xu, also the urology department director at the Third Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, the Chinese medical team carried out the operation simultaneously in Rome, capital of Italy and Beijing, capital of China.

The two places are about 8,100 kilometers apart, with the two-way communication distance exceeding 20,000 kilometers.

While Zhang was skillfully operating a self-developed remote surgical robot in Rome, in an operating room of the Third Medical Center of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, the surgical robot received remote information instructions from Zhang and executed them precisely on a prostate cancer patient to remove the lesion. "The biggest problem with a remote surgery is communication -- whether there is any delay. During today's surgery, there was almost no delay, and it was almost the same as an on-site surgery," said Zhang.

"To me, it was a really, a historical experience, a historical moment. The fact that he was able to do it in Rome makes us very, very happy," said Vito Pansadoro, chairman of Challenges in Laparoscopy, Robotics and AI, the frontier field conference.

Zhang said that the remote surgery is a systematic innovation brought about by the cross-integration of new technologies and new concepts, and is of great significance for remote treatment in future battlefield environments and disaster-stricken areas.

In the next step, China will apply the research direction to military field medical services to better protect officers and soldiers stationed in remote areas, according to Zhang.

"Through the remote surgery, we can project the most advanced medical resources to the front line in real time," Zhang said.

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Chinese team conducts pioneering remote surgery between Beijing, Rome

Gaza's health authorities said Sunday that since a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect in October 2025, the cumulative death toll has risen to 1,551, with 5,573 wounded.

That brings the total since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, to 74,544 dead and 175,692 injured.

At least seven Palestinians were killed on Sunday in a series of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian medical and security sources.

In western Gaza City, medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital said that the hospital received three bodies after an Israeli airstrike targeting the campus of the Islamic University, where buildings were sheltering displaced people.

Security sources said an Israeli drone first targeted the entrance to one campus building, wounding five people, one critically, then returned hours later and struck the same location, killing three.

In northern Gaza City, one Palestinian was killed and three others, including a child, were wounded in an Israeli drone strike near Hamad Hospital, according to medical sources at Al-Shifa Hospital.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Nasser Medical Complex said in a statement that two Palestinians were killed and five others wounded in an Israeli airstrike targeting the coastal area of al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

In the central Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital said one Palestinian was killed in an Israeli drone strike in Deir al-Balah.

The Israeli military has not commented on the reported strikes.

Over 1,550 killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since ceasefire takes effect