Israel’s government suggested that its counterpart in Colombia supports terrorism for opposing alleged war crimes in occupied Palestinian territories.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry made the implicit accusation after President Gustavo Petro recalled his ambassador to Tel Aviv in protest of “the massacre of the Palestinian people” in occupied territory.
Chilean President Gabriel Boric also recalled his ambassador and Bolivia’s government cut ties with Israel altogether in response to the alleged killing of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
Colombia recalls ambassador from Israel over “massacre of the Palestinian people”
Lior Haiat, a spokesperson of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, reiterated that the Israeli government declared war on Palestinian armed group Hamas because it “slaughtered over 1,400 Israelis and abducted 240 to the Gaza Strip.”
Haiat said that Tel Aviv “calls on Colombia and Chile to explicitly condemn the Hamas terrorist organization, which slaughtered and abducted babies, children, women and the elderly.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry
Petro’s decision to recall his ambassador comes amid growing international concerns in the southern hemisphere about the alleged crimes against humanity committed by Israeli in retaliation of the Hamas attacks on October 7.
Colombia’s president meets with ambassadors from Israel and Palestine
Bombardments by the Israeli military on Gaza has killed more than 8,300 people and has converted the occupied territory in the southwest of Palestine in a “graveyard for thousands of children,” according to Unicef.
Colombia’s government has repeatedly called on a ceasefire in order to end the killing and possibly begin a process that could lead to peace in the Middle East, which has seen multiple armed conflicts over the past decades.