Israel demands Belgium apologize after Gaza aid worker’s possible Hamas link emerges
Brussels had condemned April 2024 strike that killed employee of Belgium agency, who is seen in uniform and described as a ‘mujahid’ in a Hamas-linked channel’s post
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleNava Freiberg is The Times of Israel's deputy diplomatic correspondent.
Israel’s embassy in Belgium on Sunday demanded an apology from Brussels over its condemnation of an IDF strike that killed an employee of the Belgian development agency Enabel in Gaza in April 2024, citing newly surfaced material that it said indicated the worker was in fact a Hamas fighter.
The embassy pointed to a post by a channel affiliated with Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade describing Abdallah Nabhan as a “mujahid” and showing him in uniform.
Following the strike, “Belgium summoned Israel’s ambassador, and international condemnation followed,” the embassy wrote on X, saying, “before rushing to condemn Israel, facts matter…A public apology would be preferable, but a private one will also be accepted.”
The report has not been independently verified, and there was no immediate response from Belgium.
At the time of the strike, Belgium’s development minister said Nabhan, 33, and his seven-year-old son had been killed in eastern Rafah.
The embassy’s demand comes as Hamas and other Gaza terror groups have begun identifying slain combatants they had declined to name in recent years — some previously described as journalists or civilians — lending credence in certain cases to Israeli assertions that they were legitimate military targets and prompting a reassessment of previous reports.
The Israeli Embassy is owed an apology!
In April 2024, Abdallah Nabhan, an employee of Belgium’s development agency Enabel, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Belgium summoned Israel’s ambassador, and international condemnation followed.
New evidence now indicates that… https://t.co/NXXVI2urJU pic.twitter.com/p3vJPZPesq
— Israel in Belgium (@IsraelinBelgium) September 6, 2026
The war began with the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed over 73,400 people in Gaza, including more than 1,330 since the October 2025 ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in the enclave, although the toll does not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
The Israel Defense Forces believes that Hamas’s overall toll is largely accurate, with IDF officials estimating that two to three civilians were killed for every dead terror operative.
While the October 2025 US-backed ceasefire halted major fighting in the shattered territory, it hasn’t ended strikes by the IDF, which the military says are meant to thwart attacks by Gaza terrorists.
Gaza remains bisected into Israeli- and Hamas-controlled areas, and talks to bring about Hamas’s disarmament and the territory’s reconstruction have made only limited progress.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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