Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel effective Thursday in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.
Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.” He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.
“Thursday, diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken … for having a genocidal President,” Petro said during an International Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital.
“If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
But reacting Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz quickly rebuked Petro’s comments on the platform X.
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” he said.
Weeks after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that sparked the current war in Gaza and killed some 1,200 people, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive.
Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Petro was elected as Colombia’s first leftist president in 2022.
