The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 67,160, with 169,679 others injured since the conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted on October 7, 2023, Gaza's health authorities said in a statement on Monday.
Israeli military operations in Gaza over the past 24 hours have killed 21 Palestinians and injured 96 others, the health authorities said.
Since Israel resumed full-scale military operations in Gaza on March 18 this year after a brief ceasefire, 13,568 Palestinians have been killed and 57,638 injured, the authorities said.
Indirect talks between Israeli and Hamas delegations commenced Monday in Egyptian city of Sharm El Sheikh to discuss a framework for the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, Egypt's state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV reported.
The talks are expected to cover issues including the release of detained persons, the timetable for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, humanitarian aid access, the future governance and security of Gaza, and Hamas' disarmament.
Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 67,160
Palestinian death toll in Gaza rises to 67,160
Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities politicizing a cross-Strait zoo animal exchange program involving red pandas is absurd and ridiculous, said a spokesperson of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday.
A handover ceremony for two red pandas from Shanghai to Taipei was held on June 5, following a black-footed penguin-red panda exchange agreement between the two cities' zoos under the 2024 cooperation memorandum of the Shanghai-Taipei City Forum.
While the red pandas' handover under the memorandum drew widespread attention and warm praise from netizens on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, some DPP politicians claimed the twin-city forum would become a "breach" for "infiltration."
In response, Zhang Han, the spokesperson, highlighted the forum's role in promoting exchanges, and slammed the secessionist forces in Taiwan for politicizing an animal conservation exchange program.
"The Shanghai-Taipei City Forum serves as an important institutionalized exchange platform between the two cities and has played an important and positive role in promoting exchanges and cooperation in various fields. Animal conservation exchanges involve no confrontation, only warmth. Such activities are highly beneficial and the more the better," Zhang told a press briefing in Beijing.
"More interaction and exchanges are the shared aspiration of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait. We will, as always, support exchanges and cooperation in various fields, including cross-Strait city exchanges, to continuously enhance the well-being of compatriots across the Strait, and promote closer bonds between compatriots on both sides. 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces routinely smear cross-Strait exchanges and cooperation with so-called 'breaches for infiltration' claims, and now they are making a political issue out of red pandas, which is absurd and ridiculous," she said.
Spokesperson dismisses Taiwan's DPP for making fuss over red pandas
