French lawmaker blames Paris for death Foreign Ministry staffer in Israeli strike on Gaza

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) — A French lawmaker has blamed her government for the killing of a Foreign Ministry staffer of the country in Gaza due to Israeli shelling.

Ersilia Soudais said on Sunday that she wrote a letter to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna on the matter and that she alerted Colonna about the four children of Ahmad Abu Shamla who were "abandoned by France under Israeli bombs."

"After 25 years at the French Foreign Ministry, Mr. Abu Shamla remained in Gaza because France did not allow his children to leave. He died as a result," Soudais, a legislator with the LFI-Nupes group, said on X.

The ministry on Saturday condemned the death of the staffer due to injuries he sustained in an Israeli strike 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.