Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Tuesday threatened to break off diplomatic ties with Israel if the country fails to comply with a UN Security Council resolution approved on Monday that calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, The Associated Press reported.
Petro made the announcement in a post on social. On Monday, he published another message in which he celebrated the resolution’s approval and urged other nations to suspend ties with Israel if it doesn’t cease its military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded to Petro’s threat and wrote, “The support of the President of Colombia for the Hamas murderers who committed massacres and horrific sexual crimes against babies, women and adults is a disgrace to the Colombian people.”
“Israel will continue to protect its citizens and will not submit to any pressures and threats,” added Katz.
Petro has been repeatedly critical of Israel’s war in Gaza. In November, Petro announced that Colombia had recalled its ambassador to Israel over the war.
"I have decided to recall our ambassador to Israel. If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people we cannot stay there," he wrote at the time.
A month later, he said that Israel’s operation in Gaza against Hamas was like “Nazism in Germany.”
Last month, Petro expressed support for comments made by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who compared Israel’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler against Jews during World War II.
Days later, the Colombian President blamed Israel for an incident in which dozens of Gazans were injured as they violently gathered around trucks that were carrying humanitarian aid to the Strip.
"Netanyahu murdered 100 Palestinians while they were begging for food. This is called genocide and reminds us of the Holocaust, even if the world powers don’t want to acknowledge it," he said at the time.