The death toll in Lebanon from the ongoing Israeli attacks has risen to 2,119 since last October, with 10,019 others injured, according to a statement released Monday by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Over the past 24 hours, 36 fatalities and 150 injuries were reported in various regions of Lebanon due to the Israeli attacks, said the statement.
Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the Lebanese-Israeli border since Oct 8, 2023, to show solidarity with Hamas.
The Israeli military has been conducting an air campaign in Lebanon, dubbed "Arrows of the North," since Sept 23, marking a significant intensification of hostilities.
Lebanese authorities said an estimated 1.2 million people have been displaced over the last year, most of them within the past two weeks.
Israel's mass forced displacement campaign in Lebanon may soon cause major disease outbreaks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned as Israel attacks health care centers in the country.
In a press briefing on Tuesday by video link from Beirut, WHO Deputy Incident Manager for Lebanon Ian Clarke warned of disease outbreaks in Lebanon due to crowded conditions in displacement shelters and hospital closures as medics have fled Israel's assault.
"WHO is deeply concerned by the impact of the recent escalation of violence on the health system in Lebanon, including the rising number of attacks on health care workers and facilities. Since September 16, attacks on health care had been recorded leaving behind 65 deaths and 40 injuries among health staff. Health facilities had been greatly impacted: more than 96 primary health care centers and health facilities had been forced to close in the south due to rising hostilities, five hospitals were reported non-functioning due to physical or infrastructural damage, and an additional four hospitals have been partially evacuated," he said.
As the number of displaced people increased and the population was left with limited access to emergency and trauma care, as well as access to essential health services, including routine vaccination and essential child and maternal health services, Lebanon was facing a situation where there was a much higher risk of disease outbreaks, such as acute watery diarrhea, hepatitis A, and a number of vaccine preventable diseases, Clarke said.
Death toll in Lebanon from Israeli attacks rises to 2,119
Death toll in Lebanon from Israeli attacks rises to 2,119
Death toll in Lebanon from Israeli attacks rises to 2,119
Death toll in Lebanon from Israeli attacks rises to 2,119
China has issued a document of guidelines on promoting the construction of new-type urban infrastructure.
The guidelines, made public on Thursday, was jointly approved by the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, and highlights two major goals.
By 2027, significant progress should have been made in the construction of new-type urban infrastructure, providing ever increasing support for the development of resilient cities, while a number of experience and practices that can be copied and expanded should have been established.
By 2030, the construction of new-type urban infrastructure should have achieved remarkable results, to help push forward the building of a group of high-level resilient cities, improve urban safety and resilience, and ensure safer, more orderly, smarter and more efficient urban operations.
To achieve these aims, major tasks must be fulfilled in 11 aspects, including implementing the building and upgrading of intelligent municipal infrastructure, promoting the coordinated development of smart city infrastructure and intelligent connected vehicles, and developing smart residential quarters, according to the guidelines.
In addition, there are other important tasks such as raising the intelligence level of housing and building management, carrying out digital home construction, improving city information modeling platforms, and maintaining cyber and data security.
"Currently, various types of urban disasters and safety accidents are prone to occur frequently. Proposing comprehensive advancement in building resilient cities is an important measure to address the current urban disaster risks. Meanwhile, it is also an important aspect of advancing the modernization of urban governance in our country, with significant implications for implementing the holistic approach to national security and promoting the secure development of cities," said Wang Kai, president of the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design.
Experts said that cities, which serve as the main engine of China's economic and social development and play a primary role in expanding domestic demand, provide the broadest application scenarios and innovation space for new-generation information technologies such as 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and the Industrial Internet.
"The construction of new-type urban infrastructure essentially aims to construct a new-type urban infrastructure system based on digitization, networking, and intelligence. We should firmly grasp the development trends of digitization, networking, and intelligence to enhance the level of intelligence of the entire urban infrastructure, improve our monitoring capabilities, and enhance our risk prevention and control capabilities," said Liang Feng, vice chairman of the Smart City Professional Committee of the Science and Technology Committee under the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
China to step up construction of new-type urban infrastructure
