Lithuania's Foreign Ministry has called for Israel's immediate investigation following an incident on Wednesday when diplomats, including a Lithuanian representative, visiting Jenin in the West Bank came under Israeli fire.
"We can confirm that a Lithuanian representative in Palestine was visiting the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank with the diplomatic corps at the time of the incident. The Lithuanian representative was unhurt and has already returned to her place of residence. We call on the Israeli government to urgently investigate this incident," Kristina Belikova, spokesperson for the foreign minister, told BNS.
The Israeli army said its troops fired warning shots after diplomats visiting Jenin in the occupied West Bank deviated from their approved route.
The Israeli army said in a statement that no injuries had been reported, adding that the army "regrets the inconvenience caused".
Lithuanian: 'unprecedented incident'
"The foreign minister will probably comment more on this issue, certainly, this is absolutely unprecedented and absolutely unacceptable," Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas told reporters on Thursday.
He said the incident was unlikely to affect relations between Lithuania and Israel.
"Diplomatic relations have their own dynamics and they are neither broken nor improved by one incident, but I can certainly reiterate that such incidents are unprecedented and unacceptable not only for Lithuania, but also for other EU countries," he said.
"The international reaction is unequivocal. We cannot have such things at all and Israel's policy is creating a huge humanitarian crisis, and certainly these issues are being discussed within more than one format in Europe, in the Council of Europe," Paluckas added.
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