The Israeli air strikes in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Monday have pushed displaced people deeper into a quandary where they lack shelters and adequate medical resources.
More than 70 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured by Monday evening after Israeli forces opened fire with tanks to sweep the Greater Khan Younis area in the southern Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Since then, the casualty count has only grown.
Israeli war jets had dropped leaflets ahead of its latest assault on Khan Younis, asking tens of thousands of residents to evacuate as the area had been deemed a military zone.
Thousands of terrified Palestinians fled from their homes after the Israeli assault began. Areej Abu Alyan, a mother of five, described witnessing horrors as she and her family escaped.
"We fled from the shells and missiles they fired at us. The martyrs were lying everywhere and the remains of the injured were scattered. I held two of my sons in my hands and the girls behind me. Here we are, as you can see, we are on the streets without shelter and we do not know where to go. We couldn't take even my children's clothes," she said.
Nasser Hospital is the only hospital currently operating in Khan Younis. It has turned into a shelter for displaced Palestinians, who crowded the hospital's courtyards and corridors, along with the injured.
"It is difficult for Nasser Medical Complex to deal with this huge amount of injuries and martyrs who arrived within a few hours. Over the course of seven consecutive hours, injuries poured into the hospital, most of which were serious and many of which required urgent surgical interventions. Unfortunately, we were unable to perform many of them," said Mohamed Saqr, a doctor at the hospital.
The Israeli army said in a statement that the evacuation orders for eastern Khan Yunis were based on intelligence indicating rocket fire coming from those areas while it said Hamas was trying to reorganize its ranks.
The Gaza Health Ministry's latest casualty update puts the total number of Palestinians killed at more than 39,000 since hostilities erupted on October 7 2023, while more than 90,000 have been injured.
Israel's air raids on Gaza's Khan Younis push refugees deeper into mire
Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote speech at the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit resonated with the common aspiration of more than 2.8 billion Chinese and African people and demonstrated China's firm will of moving forward hand-in-hand with Africa along the path of development, revitalization and modernization, several participants at the event have said.
In his speech on Thursday, Xi proposed that bilateral relations between China and all African countries having diplomatic ties with China be elevated to the level of strategic relations, and that the overall characterization of China-Africa relations be elevated to an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
He also announced that the Chinese government will provide 360 billion yuan (about 50.8 billion U.S. dollars) of financial support to Africa over the next three years.
"Everyone was happy to hear those news, so everyone was clapping. So now we are going to a higher level of relations between China and Africa," said Hamidou, a counselor at the Embassy of Comoros in Beijing.
"China understands Africa's urgent desire to advance modernization. We can learn a lot from China's development," said Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso Karamoko Jean Marie Traore.
Xi also suggested 10 partnership actions for modernization that China will take together with Africa in the next three years to deepen China-Africa cooperation and spearhead modernization in the Global South.
"President Xi, through his long vision of the needs of countries and his interest in supporting development, has offered this as a real vehicle to promote exports of Africa to China, which is a huge market," said Alaa Ezz, secretary general of the Union of African Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Agriculture, and Professions (UACCIAP).
"As he told this morning, we have many projects in digitalization, in capacity building, in health centers, support for health, for infrastructure, in the framework of the Belt and [Road]. And we think that we are very satisfied with this partnership. This is a win-win partnership," said Gabriel Mbairobe, Cameroon's Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Held in Beijing from Wednesday to Friday, the 2024 FOCAC summit brought together leaders from China and over 50 African countries, who highlighted the common pursuit of China and African countries in realizing modernization.
During the summit, both sides unanimously adopted two important documents -- a declaration on jointly building an all-weather China-Africa community with a shared future for the new era, and an action plan of the FOCAC for the next three years.
Xi's speech at FOCAC summit resonates with people's common aspiration: participants
