UN teachers and staff in Gaza now fear they are targets after an Israeli airstrike hit a school-turned-shelter in the besieged territory on Wednesday, said a UN official on Saturday.
The strike on the UN-run Al-Jaouni school in central Gaza killed six of staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA).
Speaking from Gaza via a video link on Saturday, Sam Rose, a UNRWA senior official, recalled his visit Friday to the school located in the Nuseirat refugee camp, which was sheltering around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children.
"One staff member told us that he didn't feel safe wearing the UN vest anymore, so he'd taken the decision not to wear his UNRWA gilet that day, which essentially just makes him known to the population in the school that he's a staff member. He told us that he didn't want to wear it anymore because he felt like it made him a target," said Rose.
Rose called on all parties to show respect for UN facilities.
"We call on all parties to the conflict to respect UN facilities and respect the fact that these facilities are never to be used for military activities, military objectives. We have no specific information on this school, on why it was targeted," he said.
This marked the fifth time, and the deadliest, that the UNRWA had been hit since the conflict began 11 months ago.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said on Thursday that 220 UNRWA staff members have been killed since the outbreak of the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
UN staff fear to be target of Israeli attacks on Gaza: UNRWA official
UN staff fear to be target of Israeli attacks on Gaza: UNRWA official
China's total import and export volume of trade in sports services reached 52.89 billion yuan (about 7.45 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023, said the State General Administration of Sport on Wednesday.
At a press conference in Beijing, Zhou Jinqiang, deputy director of the State General Administration of Sport, briefed on the achievements scored by China since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012.
China's sports sector has achieved high-quality development, with a widespread trend of fitness among the public, remarkable achievements in competitive sports, vibrant youth sports activities, and rapid growth in the sports industry, Zhou said, adding these advancements have contributed to building China into a leading sports nation.
"Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the total scale and added value of China's sports industry have significantly increased, with growth rates surpassing those of GDP during the same period. The proportion of the sports industry in the country's GDP has also continued to rise steadily," said Zhou.
"From 2012 to 2022, the annual average growth rate of the added value of the sports industry reached 15.4 percent, with its share of the domestic GDP increasing from 0.60 percent to 1.08 percent. In 2023, China's total import and export volume of trade in sports services stood at 52.89 billion yuan, marking a 178 percent increase compared to the previous year. At present, China has essentially forged a sports industry system that is led by competitive performances and fitness leisure, with the joint development of sports venue services, sports training, sports manufacturing, and sports media," said Zhou.
China's total trade in sports services reaches 52.89 bln yuan in 2023: official
