BOGOTÁ, Colombia: Colombia’s leftist President Gustavo Petro on Thursday accused Israel of “genocide” in Gaza and threatened to buy arms after dozens of people were killed trying to get food aid in the war-torn Palestinian territories.
Israel is one of the main suppliers of weapons to the security forces of this South American country, which has been in conflict with leftist guerrillas, right-wing militias and drug cartels for decades.
Petro made the announcement on Thursday after the Hamas-controlled region’s health ministry said Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians trying to receive food aid in the chaos, killing more than 100 people. I did this. Some were injured.
Israeli officials acknowledged that the army opened fire on the crowd because they believed it was “a threat.”
“Asking for food, more than 100 Palestinians were killed by (Israeli President Benjamin) Netanyahu. This is called genocide and recalls the Holocaust,” Petro wrote on X.
“The world must block Netanyahu. Colombia is suspending all arms purchases from Israel.”
The Colombian military and police have been using rifles, pistols and rockets from Israel for decades.
Its air force owns about 20 Kfir fighter jets, and the country has the rights to manufacture Galil automatic rifles and Spike missiles under an Israeli patent.
Petro, a critic of Israel’s campaign in Gaza, had a heated argument with the country’s ambassador to Bogota, Gali Dagan.
In October, just days after the start of the war, Israel said it was “halting security exports” to Colombia after Petro accused Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of using language about the people of Gaza similar to what the “Nazis said of the Jews.”
The country’s first leftist president has also asserted that “democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics.”
Thursday’s attack has further increased the Palestinian death toll, with Gaza’s health ministry saying the death toll has exceeded 30,000, most of them women and children.
The war began on October 7 with an unprecedented attack by Hamas on southern Israel, which killed about 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.
The rebels also took about 250 hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 31 who Israel estimates have been killed.
