Health workers, ambulances and hospitals have been attacked in recent days while trying to save survivors in Gaza, according to UN relief chief Tom Fletcher.
In a social media post on Monday, Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said he was continuing to receive horrific reports from Gaza of such attacks and called for efforts to ensure that hospitals and medics are not targeted.
At a daily briefing on Monday, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said that in southern Gaza on Sunday, several casualties were reported after the surgical department of Nasser Medical Complex was hit and caught fire. In Rafah, ambulances were reportedly hit in the Tal Al Sultan refugee camp, resulting in several casualties.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said four of its ambulances were targeted, as well as 10 team members carrying out humanitarian work. Communication with the team was completely lost for 30 hours, and their fate remains unknown, the spokesman added.
As hostilities continue across Gaza, the OCHA and its partners called for the entry of additional emergency medical teams into Gaza to help health workers who are described as "exhausted and, of course, overwhelmed" by Dujarric.
Israeli authorities on Sunday issued a new evacuation order in Rafah, covering around two percent of the Strip and affecting five neighborhoods. With the latest directive, the overall area designated for evacuation over the past week covers an estimated 14 percent of the Gaza Strip, Dujarric said.
The spokesman also indicated that according to available information, "strikes hitting a UN compound in Deir Al Balah on 19 March were caused by an Israeli tank." The strikes left one UN staffer dead and six others severely injured.
As a result of the escalating attacks in Gaza, UN aid will be forced to "reduce the Organization's footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar," according to Dujarric's statement.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) also said on Monday that 124,000 people in the enclave have been forced to flee what it called "relentless bombardment" in the past few days, large numbers of people reportedly seeking shelter in hospitals.
More health workers, ambulances, hospitals attacked in Gaza: UN official
International educator representatives have gathered in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, for an exchange and cooperation event focusing on transforming teachers' roles and enhancing abilities in the intelligent era.
The meeting was a parallel session of the 2025 World Digital Education Conference, themed "Education Development and Transformation: The Era of Intelligence," which kicked off in Wuhan on Wednesday.
At the session, China's Ministry of Education released a report on primary and secondary school teachers, indicating that the digital literacy development index for teachers in 2024 registered a 5.53 percent increase from 2023.
"Technology is continuously being integrated into our educational settings. We need to engage in lifelong learning to master increasingly advanced technologies that serve talent cultivation and support teachers' professional development," said Liu Sannyuya, vice president of Central China Normal University. Participants widely acknowledged during their speeches and discussions that digital education is not merely about applying technology but represents a systemic transformation.
As the cornerstone of this transformation, teachers are at the heart of global efforts to redefine educational models in the digital age.
"China is really developing technologies which support AI and which support technology in the classrooms, and these technologies are extremely impressive. And honestly, I think the rest of the world will have a great deal to learn from the Chinese experience in the Chinese development of these technologies," said Jacques Fremont, President of the University of Ottawa.
According to the Ministry of Education, China is actively building an ecosystem for teacher development that integrates immersive daily practice, project-based empowerment of abilities, and platform-based support.
"China has always regarded teacher development as the foundation of digital education. We have implemented a national program to enhance teachers' information technology application capabilities, offering training to teachers for more than 23 million times over the past decade. Going forward, we will carry out a new digital empowerment initiative to provide a clear path for developing the teaching workforce in the intelligent era," said Han Jinhong, deputy director-general of the Department of Teacher Education under the Ministry.
International participants explore raising digital literacy of teachers during World Digital Education Conference
