Gideon Meir, the non-resident Israeli Ambassador to Malta, said he regretted the shooting of Maltese human rights activist Bianca Zammit by Israeli Forces in Gaza on Saturday.

However, Mr Meir, in Malta on a visit scheduled before the incident, said he also regretted that innocent civilians such as Ms Zammit were being used by the Palestinians and by the International Solidarity Movement for political purposes to enhance their case.

Mr Meir hoped the incident would not harm relations between Malta and Israel.

Malta officially protested with Israel after Ms Zammit, 28, was shot in the leg while filming a Palestinian protest against Israeli forces in Gaza. She was discharged from a Palestinian hospital on Tuesday and is expected to make a full recovery.

Fellow protester, 18-year-old Nidal Al Naji, and Hind Al Akra, 22, were injured along with Ms Zammit. They are now safely at home but will require a long convalescence.

The Israeli forces attacks in the Gaza zone continued and reports emerging from Palestinian human rights activists yesterday said another demonstrator, Ahmad Deeb, 21, was badly injured with a dumdum bullet that broke into shrapnel inside the body.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Maltese Embassy in Tel Aviv had sent a note to the Foreign Affairs Ministry deploring Ms Zammit's shooting. The embassy said it "expected a full investigation on this reprehensible incident, which could have had serious repercussions".

On Monday, the embassy informed the Spanish EU presidency and the EU Ambassador in Tel Aviv of its actions.

At a meeting on Tuesday, the Maltese Ambassador was assured by the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry the protest was legitimate and the ministry would ask for clarifications from the military.

Meetings followed between the Maltese Ambassador and Israeli MP Orli Levi-Abekasis, who expressed her sympathy and said the case should never have happened. She said she would follow the investigations closely.

Saturday's incident sparked the wrath of numerous organisations and Euromed working group, Skop, on Tuesday said Israel was not acknowledging shooting Ms Zammit. Instead, a military spokesman told journalists three Palestinians were hit.

The group wrote to Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg to thank him for his firm stance and urging him to raise the subject before all the international fora possible since it was not a one-off incident.

Skop said the line the Israeli military was feeding journalists was that the "area adjacent to the security fence is a combat zone used by terrorist organisation to execute attacks against Israel".

Countering Israel's statements, Skop pointed out that the so-called "combat zone", in which Ms Zammit was shot, was unilaterally declared by Israel with no grounds in international law.

The 300-metre-deep combat zone was declared on the Gaza side of the frontier last January, leaving Palestinian farmers in the region with no land to till.

Vouching for Ms Zammit, Skop said she would have put up peaceful resistance. It was also aware that she had talked to soldiers by megaphone telling them what the demonstration was about.

In addition to expressing solidarity with Ms Zammit, it extended its solidarity to all Palestinians shot in similar incidents. It also urged EU institutions to reconsider Israel's privileged status in relation to the EU in light of "these serious and fundamental violations towards human rights".

Moviment Azzjoni Xellug also expressed solidarity with Ms Zammit, following the "barbaric act". The movement thanked her for the work she and other activists did in the name of human rights.

The National Youth Council also expressed solidarity with Ms Zammit - "a fine example of committed youth" - and her family.

An interview with Mr Meir will be carried in the next edition of The Sunday Times.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.