Belgium's Minister of Development Cooperation and Urban Policy, Caroline Gennez, has accused Israel of "erasing entire Palestinian villages from the map."
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Following her comments, Belgium's Ambassador to Israel, Jean-Luc Bodson, was summoned for a reprimand at the Israeli Foreign Ministry, while Israel's Ambassador to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, submitted a strongly worded protest letter to the Belgian Foreign Ministry.
Gennez made her claim in an interview with the Palestinian newspaper "Al-Morgan," which primarily focused on her ministry's activities in Ukraine and Africa. "In the occupied Palestinian territories, the situation is no longer sustainable. Entire villages have been wiped off the map by Israelis. The periods of violent escalation are becoming shorter and more intense. As a result, the population has nowhere to turn. More Palestinians have been injured and killed due to violence since the beginning of this year compared to all of 2022."
In a letter sent by the Israeli embassy, the ambassador expressed her profound dismay at the inflammatory remarks made by the Belgian minister during her interview and said that more Israelis have been injured and killed this year than in any year since 2005.