Luxembourg summons Israeli ambassador for talks over Gaza violence
Simona Frankel, who’s also envoy to Brussels, claimed on radio that all Palestinians killed in Gaza border protests were terrorists
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to Luxembourg was summoned Wednesday for talks by the country’s foreign ministry in the latest of a growing list of countries who have rebuked Israeli envoys over the deadly violence on the Gaza border.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the dressing down of Simona Frankel, who is also ambassador to Belgium, came the day after she was given a similar rebuke in Brussels.
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Didier Reynders called in Frankel after she claimed that all Palestinians killed in border clashes earlier in the week were “terrorists.”
Ireland on Tuesday called in Ambassador Ze’ev Boker to communicate its “shock and dismay” over the deaths of dozens of Palestinians during the Gaza confrontations.
The most severe diplomatic rift has erupted between Israel and Turkey, with both countries expelling each others’ ambassadors as well as inflicting diplomatic humiliations.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said Tuesday that 62 Palestinians were killed and over 2,700 injured in clashes along the border on Monday and Tuesday. A Hamas official on Wednesday acknowledged that 50 of the Palestinians reported killed were members of the Islamist terrorist group; Islamic Jihad said Tuesday that three of the dead were its members.
Israel claims that Hamas is spurring the violence and using it for cover for attacks.
Hamas, which rules the Strip, openly calls for Israel’s destruction.
The border protests thinned out Tuesday with only some 4,000 said to join the border clashes, according to the IDF. That was compared to some 40,000 Palestinians who participated in violent riots along the security fence on Monday. There were no reports of significant border protests on Wednesday morning.
