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 in 2024 saw a faster transformation and upgrading of investment in manufacturing industry, a strong growth of investment in high-tech industries, and a rebound of investment in infrastructure construction, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Saturday.
The investment in manufacturing industry grew by 9.2 percent compared to the previous year, or six percentage points higher than the growth rate of overall investment. In particular, investment in technological upgrades of manufacturing industry increased by eight percent, or 4.8 percentage points higher than overall investment growth.
Private investment in manufacturing grew by 10.8 percent, driving up overall private investment by 5.3 percentage points.
The structure of investment continued to optimize. Investment in high-tech industries rose eight percent compared to the previous year, which was 4.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of overall investment. In particular, investment in high-tech manufacturing grew by seven percent, and that in high-tech service industry grew by 10.2 percent. Investments related to high-tech industries, such as aerospace equipment manufacturing and professional technical services, increased by more than 30 percent.
In 2025, China plans to moderately increase central government budgetary investments, issue ultra-long-term special treasury bonds and local government special bonds, and enhance efforts to support projects for implementing major national strategies and building security capacity in key areas, as well as implementation of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs, with the aim of stimulating private investment activity through various measures, effectively leveraging government investment to drive social investment, improving investment efficiency, and promoting steady growth in investments.
Transformation, upgrading of China's manufacturing investment accelerates in 2024