France has summoned the Israeli ambassador to Paris to a meeting at the foreign ministry after an air strike wounded the French consul in Gaza, along with his wife and daughter.
A spokesman for the ministry said on Wednesday that France’s ambassador in Tel Aviv had complained to Israeli authorities over the bombing, and that Israel’s envoy had been required to meet with senior officials in Paris.
The consul, his wife and 13-year-old daughter were injured during an Israeli air strike on Sunday night, Bernard Valero, the French foreign ministry spokesman, said on Tuesday.
Valero told reporters that the three were were hit by shrapnel at their residence in Gaza, which is located 200 metres from the site of an Israeli missile attack.
"France condemns the consequences of the raid," he said. "While we are all for Israeli security, France recalls the utmost necessity to avoid civilian harm," Valero adde.
Though Valero did not comment on the nature of their injuries, French media reported that Majda Shaqqoura, the consul’s wife, suffered a haemorrhage and miscarried.
Palestinian Killed
The raid, which also killed one Palestinian policeman and wounded four others, is likely to strain already difficult relations between France and Israel.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, earlier this month called Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, a "liar" in a conversation with Barack Obama that was accidentally broadcast to journalists.
Israeli planes carried out two raids on the Gaza Strip overnight, wounding a Palestinian, a Hamas official said on Wednesday.
The raids were on targets in Beit-Lahya and northern Gaza, said a member of the security service of Hamas, which controls the Palestinian territory.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed a raid on "terrorist sites" in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian fighters in Gaza fired two rockets into southern Israel on Tuesday evening, damaging a farm building but causing no casualties, Israeli police said.
The rockets were a retaliatory strike following the death of a Palestinian policeman in Israeli air raids on Sunday.
(Agencies via Al Jazeera)
