The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Wednesday it was “unacceptable” the Israeli army fired shots near a diplomatic delegation, including European officials, during a visit to the West Bank.
The group was visiting a refugee camp in the Palestinian city of Jenin but deviated from an “approved route” and “entered an area where they were not authorized to be,” Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement on social media, after which Israeli troops fired “warning shots” to scare them away.
“Any threats on diplomats’ lives are unacceptable,” Kallas said in a press conference Wednesday, adding warning shots were “still shots” and those responsible should be held “accountable.”
“The IDF regrets the inconvenience caused,” the Israel Defense Forces said, adding there would be an inquiry and the countries involved would be updated about its findings.
The diplomats included delegates from the EU, France, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Russia, China and elsewhere, according to the Palestinian Authority, which organized the visit.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry slammed the incident as a “heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces, which deliberately targeted by live fire an accredited diplomatic delegation.”
Footage of the incident shared by the Palestinian Authority on social media shows members of the delegation running for cover as shots ring through the air.
The incident comes a day after Kallas announced the EU would review its political and economic agreement with Israel over the latter’s military offensive in Gaza and the resulting humanitarian disaster in the besieged coastal enclave.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on social media he had summoned the Israeli ambassador to Rome “to obtain official clarifications on what happened in Jenin.”
Elena Giordano contributed to this report.
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