Instead of pursuing their dreams of a bright future, many youths in Gaza are ending up with their dreams shattered due to the escalating Palestine-Israel conflict.
Nineteen-year-old Mohammed Al Bahri from Gaza City is one of them.
Mohammed was a high school graduate with excellent grades and was successfully admitted to a local medical college last year. He had hopes of becoming a doctor after graduating from the college. Unfortunately, his dream and university life were both cut short after suffering a debilitating injury from as missile strike.
In February, Mohammed, the only boy and also pillar in his family, ventured out to find some food together with several other youths, but was hit by Israeli drone missile attacks.
One of Mohammed's companions was killed on the site, and he himself was seriously injured.
"I started running with a sense of extreme fear and panic, trying to escape to a safe place with my friends. I tried to avoid being tracked by the drone. But when I was running down the street, another drone fired a missile at me. The explosion blew me away and got me falling heavily to the ground. I screamed loudly in pain. It was so painful. I tried to stand up but found that my leg was seriously injured with broken bones, and was bleeding profusely. Five minutes later, another missile hit me," he said.
The attack cost Mohammed his right leg, but his ordeal did not end there.
Since October this year, the Israel Defense Forces continued to increase military operations in northern Gaza, including Beit Lahia, where Mohammed lived.
Mohammed had no choice but to embark on the road to escape.
"We walked on and on until we met Israeli soldiers. They treated me like an able-bodied person, completely disregarding my injury. They checked me with a scanner, then told me to go south. I walked from the Indonesia Hospital to Gaza City. I walked for three hours because of the injury," he said.
Now, Mohammed is no longer able to engage in heavy physical labor and can only rely on the meager income earned from a small booth to eke out a living for his family.
"This war completely affected my life. I have nothing now. The road to healing is long and arduous. My dreams have been shattered," he added.
War dashes hopes for normal life for Gazan youth
War dashes hopes for normal life for Gazan youth
China's economy has maintained a generally stable growth in 2024, with impressive achievements made in the development of manufacturing and new quality productive forces, said economists.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting on Dec 9 to analyze and study economic work in 2025. The meeting noted that the year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and a critical year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).
From a macro perspective, China's economic operation has maintained generally stable with steady progress in 2024, and the main goals of social and economic development will be successfully achieved.
"In 2024, China's macro-economy have shown signs of stabilization on the basis of continued structural adjustment, and with the growth rate, the country will be able to achieve the annual target of around 5 percent," said Liu Yuanchun, President of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
In 2024, China's industrial structure has continued to upgrade in high-quality development, laying a solid foundation for the stable economic development.
In the first three quarters, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size (those with annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan or more) increased by 5.8 percent year on year. Among them, the added value of equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing industries above designated size increased by 7.5 percent and 9.1 percent year on year, respectively.
"Our manufacturing industry has maintained a relatively strong growth, and the strongest performing industries among them are high-tech manufacturing and high-end equipment manufacturing," said Wu Sa, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research.
In 2024, China has witnessed steady development of new quality productive forces
Wu said that it not only promoted the development of emerging industries and future industries, but also empowered traditional industries and provided new impetus for the construction of a modern industrial system.
"For example, at the Zhuhai Air Show that just ended, we saw the debut of many high-tech products, including humanoid robots and dog robots, as well as some low-altitude economic and low-altitude aircraft. These are all very vivid examples of the development of our new quality productive forces. It not only simply indicates the success of these products, but also indicates that we have laid a more solid foundation for building a modern industrial system, and the overall momentum and driving mechanism of development have become better," Wu said.
China's economy maintains stable growth in 2024 with impressive achievements: economists
