Brussels: An aid worker who was part of Belgium's development aid efforts in the Gaza Strip died in an Israeli strike, the Belgian government said on Thursday, adding it was summoning the Israeli ambassador over the incident.
Belgium's Development Minister Caroline Gennez said in a statement that 33-year-old Abdallah Nabhan and his seven-year-old son died after a bombardment by the Israeli army in the eastern part of the southern city of Rafah.
Nabhan, whose nationality was not disclosed, worked for the Belgian Enabel agency, assisting small businesses.
"I will summon the Israeli ambassador to condemn this unacceptable act & demand an explanation," said Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib in a post on social media platform X.
According to the government in Brussels, at least seven people were killed by the strike on a building that housed about 25 people, including displaced people from other parts of the Gaza Strip.
Israel is seeking to eradicate Hamas, which controls Gaza, after the group killed 1,200 people and took 253 hostages in a cross border raid on Oct. 7, by Israeli tallies.
More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Palestinian health authorities.
"The indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure and innocent civilians goes against every international and humanitarian law and the rules of war," said Gennez. (Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout and Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Enabel's chief, Jean Van Wetter, called their deaths "yet another flagrant violation by Israel of international humanitarian law".
The health ministry in Gaza, run by the Hamas militant group, says more than 34,000 people have died in the war being waged in the Palestinian territory, most of them women and children.
Israel is conducting airstrikes and ground operations there in retaliation for a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed around 1,170 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Belgium, which currently holds the EU presidency, is among the European countries most vocal in condemning Israel's operation as disproportionately deadly for Palestinian civilians. — Agencies
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