Colombia says it will break diplomatic relations with Israel on Thursday over its actions in Gaza. <\/p>\n
Colombian President Gustavo Petro made the announcement at a rally in Bogot\u00e1\u2019s Bol\u00edvar Square on Wednesday, describing the Israeli government\u2019s handling of the war in Gaza as \u201cgenocidal.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel launched its assault in the Palestinian territory following terror group Hamas\u2019 attacks on October 7, which left more than 1,200 people dead and saw more than 250 taken hostage \u2013 many of whom remain in captivity today. <\/p>\n
Now nearing its eight month, Israel\u2019s war in the isolated enclave has killed more than 34,000 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Israel Katz, condemned Colombia\u2019s announcement and accused Petro of rewarding Hamas, which controls Gaza, saying he was siding with the \u201cmost despicable monsters known to humanity.\u201d Katz also called Petro a \u201chate-filled, antisemitic president,\u201d but said relations between both countries would remain warm despite the president\u2019s actions. <\/p>\n
Hamas said it \u201chighly appreciated\u201d Petro\u2019s position, saying in a statement that it considered the decision \u201ca victory for the sacrifices of our people and their just cause\u201d and calling on other countries to follow suit. <\/p>\n
South Africa has previously accused Israel of violating international laws on genocide, telling the United Nations\u2019 top court that Israel\u2019s leadership was \u201cintent on destroying the Palestinians in Gaza\u201d \u2013 a case which Israel dismissed as \u201cabsurd blood libel.\u201d <\/p>\n
The International Court of Justice later ordered Israel to \u201ctake all measures\u201d to prevent genocide but stopped short of ordering its government to halt the war. <\/p>\n
Regional neighbor Bolivia also cut diplomatic ties with Israel last year, citing \u201ccrimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people\u201d in the wake of Israel\u2019s war with Hamas. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story. More to come.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Colombia says it will break diplomatic relations with Israel on Thursday over its actions in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2878,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}