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Belgium Makes Diplomatic Protest against Israel after Gaza Agency Destroyed

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, February 1, 2024. (Reuters)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, February 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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Belgium Makes Diplomatic Protest against Israel after Gaza Agency Destroyed

An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, February 1, 2024. (Reuters)
An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, near the Israel-Gaza border, in Israel, February 1, 2024. (Reuters)

Belgium’s foreign ministry said Friday that it had summoned the Israeli ambassador to complain about the destruction of the country’s development agency office in Gaza.

Enabel’s office was in a six-story building in Gaza City. The ministry said it believed that none of the agency’s staff were present in the office when the building was bombed.

Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib, accompanied by Development Minister Caroline Gennez, shared their concerns with Israel’s envoy to Belgium, Idit Rosenzweig-Abu, the ministry said in a statement.

“The destruction of civilian infrastructure is absolutely unacceptable and does not comply with international law,” it said. Given the ongoing war in Gaza, Belgium decided two weeks ago to pull all Enabel staff and their families out of the territory.

“We very much hope that these people – including many children – will be able to leave Gaza quickly and unharmed,” the ministry said.

Belgium currently holds the European Union’s rotating presidency. It plans to put the issue of compensation for damaged Gaza infrastructure financed by the bloc and its member countries on the agenda for debate.

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Ukraine Says it Sank Russian Submarine, Hit Airfield, Oil Depots

Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov meets with service members who, according to the Defense Ministry, participated in taking Avdiivka, at a Russian military command center in a location given as Russian-controlled Ukraine, in this still image taken from video released February 21, 2024. (Russian Defense Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov meets with service members who, according to the Defense Ministry, participated in taking Avdiivka, at a Russian military command center in a location given as Russian-controlled Ukraine, in this still image taken from video released February 21, 2024. (Russian Defense Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
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Ukraine Says it Sank Russian Submarine, Hit Airfield, Oil Depots

Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov meets with service members who, according to the Defense Ministry, participated in taking Avdiivka, at a Russian military command center in a location given as Russian-controlled Ukraine, in this still image taken from video released February 21, 2024. (Russian Defense Ministry/Handout via Reuters)
Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov meets with service members who, according to the Defense Ministry, participated in taking Avdiivka, at a Russian military command center in a location given as Russian-controlled Ukraine, in this still image taken from video released February 21, 2024. (Russian Defense Ministry/Handout via Reuters)

Ukraine's military said on Saturday it had sunk a submarine in Russian-controlled Sevastopol, attacked a southern Russian airfield and hit oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions.

"A Russian submarine went to the bottom of the Black Sea," the defense ministry said in a post on X, naming the vessel as the B-237 Rostov-on-Don attack submarine, Reuters reported.

The military's general staff said the attack on Sevastopol port also significantly damaged four launchers of the S-400 anti-aircraft "Triumf" defense system.

There was no immediate comment by Russia on the Sevastopol attack.

In other, overnight attacks, the military said it hit an ammunition depot at Morozovsk airfield where Russian forces stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment and a number of oil depots and fuel storage facilities.

"Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners - a security solution," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly called on his Western allies for permission to use their weapons for long-range attacks on Russia, in addition to striking military targets close to the border.

He said on Saturday that Russian forces had used over 600 guided aerial bombs to attack Ukraine in the past week.

The attack on oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions set fire to at least two oil tanks, according to the Ukrainian military report.

In Russia, local officials reported that tanks at a fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district of Rostov region caught fire as a result of a drone attack.

The regional governor of Belgorod also said Ukraine-launched drones caused a fire at an oil storage depot there, adding that the fire was extinguished and no one was injured.

Ukraine has dramatically stepped up its use of long-range drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities, attempting to damage sites fueling Russian forces and the country's economy in Moscow's 29-month-old invasion.