Thousands of Lebanese displaced by Israeli attacks have been stranded in public shelters with harsh living conditions, with the Lebanese government worrying that it will be unable to shelter such a huge number of evacuees as the conflict continues.
Lebanese health authorities report on Friday that 217 people have been killed since Israel's expanded attacks on Monday, with other 798 being injured. More than 95,000 people have been displaced.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday warned of unprecedented humanitarian consequences. The UN human rights office has condemned Israel's ground incursions, displacement orders, and continued airstrikes across Lebanon.
A public building in Beirut that has opened its doors to receive Lebanese people fleeing the fighting in southern Lebanon, and Beirut's southern district is accommodating about 3,000 people of 500 families.
They all arrived in the same brief time period, creating shock for a government that doesn't have enough supplies, in part because the U.S.-Israel war on Iran is locking down the entire region, so Lebanese people don't have any other place to go, stranded with no food or money and with very little time to evacuate from their homes.
There is almost no privacy at the shelter, with men and women all sleeping together on the floor or on the tiles, without a bed sheet or a pillow in the winter.
Saida, a city to the south of Beirut, is one of the main cities to which displaced people have run. Suspending education, the city has opened all its schools to receive scores of displaced citizens, with numbers far exceeding those in Beirut.
The Lebanese government is worried that an extended conflict will result in more displaced people than the government can handle.
Meanwhile, casualties have been rising since the Israeli military launched a new wave of attacks against targets of Lebanon's Hezbollah group on Monday. This week's escalating conflict comes after Israel and the United States launched joint military actions against Iran on Feb 28.
Evacuees in Lebanon stranded as displacements soar
Evacuees in Lebanon stranded as displacements soar
China's commitment to its path of opening up will continue as a long-term national strategy and should increasingly be defined by inclusiveness, a national political advisor said Friday.
Zhou Hanmin, a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the 14th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and president of the Shanghai Public Diplomacy Association, made the remarks in an interview with China Media Group (CMG) during the annual political "two sessions" underway in Beijing.
"Opening-up is and has been a long-term national policy and a strategy ever since China opened itself up (to the world) some 48 years ago. Ever since China joined WTO (World Trade Organization), you could see it has fundamentally changed the formats of economic movements. So opening-up is a reference and also a driving force," he said.
Zhou stressed China must also invite less privileged nations to share in the prosperity of a more open world.
"Inclusiveness is one word that should be used to modify China's opening-up. I (previously) submitted a bill in CPPCC for the zero tariff for those least developed nations' exportation to China. Because for each and every China International Import Expo, you can see quite a large number of exhibitors coming from the least developed countries. We need to give them very genuine help. We are just in the situation of that. We just try to do not only with developed nations, but the Global South and rest of the countries, all together," he said.
Zhou's comments come amid the ongoing "two sessions", the annual meetings of China's top legislature, the National People's Congress (NPC), and the top political advisory body, the National Committee of the CPPCC. Both bodies serve a five-year term and hold a plenary session each year, generally in March.
The fourth session of the 14th NPC and the fourth session of the 14th National Committee of the CPPCC kicked off in Beijing on Thursday and Wednesday, respectively. A main focus is the adoption of the country's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), a key blueprint guiding China's drive toward modernization. When asked about key signals from the plan that the international community should closely watch, Zhou outlined several key issues.
"We are now carrying on this Five-Year Plan in the most crucial period of time. We are going to generally modernize the country (in) another 10 years. In this five-year period of time, we need to focus more on creation. Creation not necessarily in the field of technology. Creation means the modernization of the governance, create lots of new things in the system and methods of governance. This is also important," Zhou said.
"The modernization of industrial systems, the further expansion of the ability of consumption, and we try to know very well the longevity, whatever solves people's daily needs. The last but not least, we try to understand fully international collaboration. Opening-up is still a driving force," he said.
China's opening-up should continue path of inclusiveness: political advisor
China's opening-up should continue path of inclusiveness: political advisor
