Belgium’s foreign minister, Aja Labib, announced on Thursday night to Friday that she had summoned Israel’s ambassador to Brussels after shelling that “destroyed” the offices of the Belgian development agency in the Gaza Strip.

“The offices of ENABEL, the Belgian development agency, in Gaza were bombed and destroyed. Targeting political buildings is unacceptable” and “we are calling the ambassador of Israel to give a full explanation”, the head of Belgian diplomacy said via X (the former Twitter), clarifying that she is acting together with the Minister of Development Caroline Genet.

Jean Van Wetter, the director of ENABEL, clarified via X that the agency’s offices in the Palestinian enclave were “totally destroyed yesterday in a bombardment.”

“We are all shocked (…) As a government agency working for the common good under international humanitarian law, we cannot accept this,” he added, accompanying the post with two photos: the first depicting the high-rise building in which housed the offices; the second pile of debris.

ENABEL’s offices were located on Victor Hugo Street, in the central ar Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City.

The Israeli embassy in Belgium has not reacted so far.

The Israeli military initially focused its shelling and ground operations on the northern part of the Gaza Strip, including Gaza City, before pushing south. Now the most intense hostilities are taking place in the city of Khan Yunis and its surroundings. It is the second largest city in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

According to a preliminary report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (CNUCED in French, UNCTAD in English), released last Wednesday, 37,379 buildings—or roughly 18% of the total in the Gaza Strip—were damaged or were completely destroyed by the end of November due to military operations.

Since then, satellite images have shown that the devastation has more than doubled, according to Rami Alaze, an economist at CNUCED, one of the authors of the report. “New data shows that 50% of building structures in the Gaza Strip have been (damaged or) destroyed (completely),” he told AFP.