Chinese Ambassador to Israel, Du Wei, has been found dead in his apartment in a Tel Aviv suburb, reported Israeli local media. His body was found from his house on Sunday morning.
Police have launched an investigation into his death.
58-year-old Wei was appointed as the ambassador to Israel in February. He had previously served as China’s ambassador to Ukraine.
Soon after taking over as the new ambassador, Wei had thanked ‘Israeli people across the society’ for offering ‘valuable support to China’ during the outbreak of coronavirus. “Now, we want to give you our support in the battle against the disease,” he had said in a video statement.
Interestingly, Wei on Friday had issued a detailed statement on Friday via the Chinese Embassy’s website, rejecting claims by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of a coronavirus cover-up. His statement had read, “China has never covered up the outbreak. COVID-19 is a brand new virus that has never been seen in human history. It was on December 27, 2019, that China’s local government in Hubei Province first received the report of cases. On December 31, the Chinese government notified the World Health Organization of the above information.”
According to BBC, the ambassador was married and had a son but his family are not believed to have been in the country. He was living in the Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya.