Paris, 17 December 2023 (dpa/MIA) - A French diplomatic official died of injuries sustained during an Israeli bombing raid in the Gaza Strip, the French Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

The official had taken refuge in the house of one of his French consulate colleagues in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip near the border with Egypt, with two other colleagues and family members, the ministry said.

On Wednesday the house was hit by Israeli bombing, injuring the official and killing around 10 people, the statement continued. He later died. He had been "working for France" since 2002, the ministry said.

"France condemns the bombing of a residential building, which caused the death of many other civilians," the ministry said. "We demand that the Israeli authorities shed full light on the circumstances of this bombing, as soon as possible."

Israeli forces began a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks mounted by the Palestinian militant Hamas movement on Israeli territory across the border, in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 240 hostages taken.

The ground offensive was preceded by and is being accompanied by aerial bombardments. According to Hamas, about 18,700 people, many of them civilians, have been killed.