Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday announced that his government would break diplomatic relations with Israel in the latest escalation of tensions between the countries over the Israel-Hamas war.
Petro again described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.”
He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.
Photo: Reuters
“Tomorrow [yesterday], diplomatic relations with the State of Israel will be broken ... for having a genocidal president,” Petro said during a Workers’ Day march in Colombia’s capital. “If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”
Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Israel Katz rebuked Petro’s comments.
“History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind who burned babies, murdered children, raped women and kidnapped innocent civilians,” Katz wrote on X.
Weeks after the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year that sparked the current war in Gaza and killed about 1,200 people, Petro recalled Colombia’s ambassador to Israel as he criticized the country’s military offensive.
Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America, but ties have cooled since Petro was elected president in 2022.
Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and the countries signed a free-trade agreement in 2020.
“Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that,” Katz wrote. “The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear.”
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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