:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/OJPGBDWKZJFINBFAFEXUJOWOPQ.jpg "Colombia warns of breaking relations if Israel does not comply with ceasefire in Gaza requested by the UN")
BOGOTÁ (AP) — Colombian President Gustavo Petro warned Israel on Tuesday that he will break diplomatic relations if that country does not comply with a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Israel responded that it will not give in to any “pressure or threats.”
Diplomatic relations between Colombia and Israel have been strained since the start of the war with Hamas. Since then, Petro has threatened to sever relations and questioned Israel’s actions in Gaza and compared it to the actions of Nazi Germany.
The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, said through X, formerly Twitter, that his country will not give in to threats and assured that the Colombian president’s “support” for the “Hamas terrorists” who have committed crimes against “babies, women and adults is a shame for the Colombian people.”
The day before, the UN Security Council issued its first demand for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip after the United States decided not to use its power to veto the measure, which provoked the anger of Israel, which in response canceled the visit of a high-level delegation to Washington.
After the approval of the resolution, Petro urged “the nations of the world” to break diplomatic relations if Israel “breaks this ceasefire,” he published on his X account, formerly Twitter.
It is not the first time that Petro says he is willing to break foreign relations with Israel: in October last year, at the beginning of the war, he also warned when Israel decided to stop security exports to Colombia in protest against Petro’s criticism. . “We do not support genocides,” the Colombian president indicated then.
Petro suspended arms purchases from Israel in February after Palestinians said Israeli soldiers shot people searching for food in Gaza.
Israel is one of the main security allies for Colombia. The Colombian military uses Israeli-made 5.56 millimeter Galil rifles that have been produced in Colombia since 2002 thanks to a license granted by Israel Military Industries (IMI) to the Colombian Military Industry.
Since the war began, Colombia has repatriated more than 300 of its citizens on humanitarian flights. It has also exceptionally given nationality to a Palestinian woman who was in Gaza, as well as to an Israeli, husband of a Colombian woman, who was kidnapped by Hamas, according to the Colombian government.