Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has ordered the opening of an embassy in Ramallah, the country’s foreign minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told journalists on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
"President Petro has given the order that we open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the representation of Colombia in Ramallah, that is the next step we are going to take," Murillo said.
Petro has long been critical of Israel’s war in Gaza and announced earlier this month that Colombia was severing diplomatic ties with Israel over its response to the Hamas massacre of October 7.
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.”
In another incident,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.