China's small businesses enjoy more tax cuts in first nine months

China's small and micro-sized businesses enjoyed 946.1 billion yuan (131.4 billion U.S. dollars) of tax breaks from January to September, up 6.7 percent year on year, official data showed on Friday.

Such businesses are important in expanding employment, energizing the market, and improving people's livelihoods, said the State Taxation Administration.

China has synchronized taxation system reform with tax and fee cuts to ease the financial burden on businesses.

The total tax relief for small and micro-sized businesses exceeded 5 trillion yuan in the past five years, according to the administration.

The Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza had risen to 44,176 and the total injuries reached 104,473, Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement released on Saturday.

In the past 24 hours, Israeli military operations in Gaza killed 120 and wounded 205 people, the statement said.

The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, announced on the same day that an Israeli hostage was killed in a northern Gaza area targeted by Israeli bombardment.

Abu Ubaida, the spokesman for the Brigades, said that after weeks of interrupted communication with members tasked with protecting the occupation's prisoners, it was revealed that one of the female captives was killed in an area under attack in northern Gaza, while the life of another female captive who was with her remains in grave danger.

Ubaida accused Israel of causing "suffering and death" of the captives, noting that the Israeli government must prepare to deal with the "dilemma" of the captives' bodies going missing amid its attacks.