HONG KONG – China will provide emergency medical supplies to Lebanon, China’s official foreign aid agency, the China International Development Cooperation Agency, said on Tuesday, as Israel-Hezbollah fighting intensified.
Li Ming, spokesperson for the agency, said in a statement that as the fighting escalated recently, explosions and air strikes “have occurred in many places in Lebanon, causing a large number of casualties.”
“At the request of the Lebanese government, the Chinese government has decided to provide emergency humanitarian medical supplies to Lebanon to help Lebanon carry out medical assistance,” the statement said.
Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s third-largest city, Haifa, and Israel looked poised to expand its offensive into Lebanon on Monday, one year after the devastating Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
The focus of the war has increasingly shifted north to Lebanon where Israeli forces have been exchanging fire with Hezbollah since the Iranian-backed group launched a barrage of missiles in support of Hamas on Oct. 8.
Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman