France ‘bears responsibility’ for killing of Foreign Ministry staffer in Gaza: NGO
Ahmad Abu Shamla’s death could have been prevented, says honorary president of France Palestine Solidarity Association
ANKARA
The honorary president of the France Palestine Solidarity Association (AFPS) on Monday slammed the French government over the killing of a Foreign Ministry staffer in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
"France bears responsibility for the death of Ahmad Abu Shamla. This is a scandal, his death could have been prevented," French broadcaster BFMTV quoted Taoufiq Tahani as saying.
"If France had included Shamla's family on the list of those to be evacuated from Gaza, we could have seen him alive," Tahani said.
The ministry on Saturday condemned the death of its staffer, who left-wing lawmaker Elsa Faucillon named as Ahmad Abu Shamla, due to injuries he sustained in an Israeli airstrike on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
It said some staffers "sought refuge in the home of a colleague working in the French Consulate, and the house was subjected to Israeli shelling on Dec. 13."
"France condemns this bombing of a residential building which caused the death of many other civilians," the ministry said, calling on Israeli authorities to clarify the circumstances of the shelling as soon as possible.
Faucillon said on X on Sunday that Abu Shamla had "worked for the French Institute in Gaza for 23 years."
"France did not put his four elder sons on the list of persons authorized to leave Gaza. He chose to stay with them, and lost his life in a bombardment," she said.
Israel's air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas have killed at least 19,453 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to health authorities in the enclave.
The war has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory's housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.
Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack, while more than 130 hostages remain in captivity.
*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz
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