Colombia expels Israeli ambassador over Gaza war comments

Colombia demanded that Israel's ambassador leave the country on Monday after a disagreement over President Gustavo Petro's remarks on the war with Hamas.

Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva requested the envoy, Gali Dagan, should "at a minimum, apologise and leave" after criticising Petro's comparison of Israeli attacks on Gaza with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

In a post on X, formally known as Twitter, Petro accused Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, of speaking of the people of Gaza similar to what the "Nazis said of the Jews".

Israel launched a bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip after Hamas fighters carried out a surprise attack on October 7 throughout Israeli bases and settlements, killing over 1,400 people.

Israel's bombing of Gaza has killed at least 2,750 Palestinians, including over 1,000 children. The campaign has been criticised by UN experts as being on the verge of "mass ethnic cleansing".

Colombia's president pleaded that "democratic peoples cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics."

Israel is one of the main providers of arms to Colombia's military and has stated they would be "halting security exports" to the South American country as the diplomatic feud continues.

Lior Haiat, Israel's foreign ministry spokesman, stated that the Colombian ambassador, Margarita Manjarrez, had been sent for over Petro's "hostile and anti-Semitic statements".

Petro responded to the statements and said his country does not support "genocide."

"If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them," he added.

Petro continued to go back and forth with the Colombian envoy, Dagan, who had urged the president to condemn a "terrorist attack against innocent civilians."

Petro responded: "Terrorism is to kill innocent children, whether it be in Colombia or Palestine."

Dagan invited Petro to visit the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem and the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, which the president retorted he saw being "copied in Gaza."

The president added: "No democrat in the world can accept Gaza being turned into a concentration camp,"

Colombia's foreign ministry stated to "vehemently condemn the terrorism and attacks against civilians that have occurred in Israel" and express solidarity with Israeli victims.

That statement has since been disabled, with a new one being issued with no mention of "terrorism".