The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 60,933, with 150,027 others injured since the conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted on October 7, 2023, Gaza's health authorities said in a statement on Monday.
Over the past 24 hours, Israeli attacks have claimed 94 lives and injured 439 others, according to the statement.
Gaza's ambulance and emergency service said on Monday that at least two Palestinians were shot dead and more than 20 others were injured near an aid distribution point north of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli drones also attacked the Nusayrat refugee camp in central Gaza, while 13 people were killed in an Israeli attack at the Zikim crossing in northern Gaza on Sunday.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Sunday that Israeli forces attacked its headquarters in the southern city of Khan Younis, causing a fire on the first floor, killing one and wounding three.
The PRCS released a video documenting what it said was the beginning of the attack.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) issued a statement on Sunday condemning the attack on the PRCS headquarters and calling on all parties to protect civilians and humanitarian workers.
The statement said that the headquarters building, clearly marked with the Red Crescent emblem, had been attacked multiple times. Since the outbreak of this latest round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 51 PRCS staff and volunteers have been killed, 31 of whom were on duty wearing the Red Crescent emblem.
The Gaza media office said on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had allowed only 14 percent of available aid into Gaza over the past eight days, and that the aid had been systematically stolen as part of a plan to "create chaos and hunger."
The Nasser medical center in southern Gaza said on Monday that at least 38 people died after arriving at the facility over the previous 24 hours, while another 132 were being treated for injuries.
Medical staff said that they were under tremendous pressure, with severe shortages of supplies, overcrowded wards, and limited access to specialized care.
Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 60,933
Attempts to curb China's scientific and technological advancement are futile, a fact that has already been proven, said Kishore Mahbubani, former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations, in an interview aired Friday.
In an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, Mahbubani said he had stated this position in one of his articles published in the United States.
"Actually, I published an article, you know the two, I guess two leading journals in the United States on international relations. One is Foreign Affairs and the other is Foreign Policy. And last year I co-authored an article with two other co-authors, saying that all the efforts to stop China's scientific and technological development will fail. And it has failed always. You know, for example, the Soviet Union tried to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to China, China develops its own. The United States didn't want to share its technology on international space station with China. China develops its own space station. So clearly, efforts to stop China in the area of scientific innovation and technological development have failed. And so it'd be wiser for the West, including United States, to work with China other than to try and stop China seek development," he said.
Regarding China's progress on robots, Mahbubani said China is leading the world in the sector and hopes the country will share its expertise with the rest of the world.
"If there's one country that is preparing for the future well, it is China, because one in six human beings in the world is Chinese. But one in three robots in the world is Chinese, and one in two baby robots being born every day is Chinese. So China is producing far more robots than any other country is. So clearly it's preparing for the world of the future when we will have, for example, labor shortages, as you know, as you develop an aging society. So China is wisely investing in robots. But I hope that China will also share its learning and expertise with other countries. Also because the robots like that can also be helpful even to developing countries cause you can enhance the productivity of their populations, of their factories and so on so forth. So the world should be happy that China is leading the world in manufacturing, producing robots," he said.
Attempts to stop China's sci-tech development doomed to fail: former Singaporean diplomat
