DHAKA: Soccer star Lionel Messi, in a Facebook post, said he was ‘deeply saddened” by the loss of young lives with a photo of an injured Palestinian boy.

‘As a father and a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, I am terribly saddened by the images coming from the conflict between Israel and Palestine, where violence has already claimed so many young lives and to injure countless children,’ Messi wrote in his Facebook post, reports gulfnews.com.

Israeli social media users have exhorted Messi to acknowledge the death of Daniel Tregaron, a four-year-old Messi fan who was killed by a mortar fired from Gaza.

Seeking a response from Messi, Israelis shared photos of a four-year-old in his Messi jersey, and tagged the soccer player.

During over a month-long military offensive on Gaza prior to the short ceasefire, Israel killed 500 children and injured 3,000 so far, according to United Nations estimates. As of 24 August, the death toll in Gaza had reached 2,100. 

However, Israel has lost 64 soldiers and four civilians during conflict.

Daniel Tregaron was killed in a mortar attack on Friday in a town near the Gaza border, the first civilian fatality in Israel in weeks. Israel’s military warned it would escalate airstrikes on militant targets in retaliation.

BDST: 1942 HRS, AUG 25, 2014