Addressing a May Day rally in Bogota, Petro stated: "Tomorrow (Thursday) diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be severed… for having a genocidal president," referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Petro expressed his concern over the global acceptance of "genocide, the extermination of an entire people."

"If Palestine dies, humanity dies," he asserted, eliciting loud applause and support from the crowd, many of whom displayed pro-Palestinian banners.

This is not the first time Petro has taken a stance on this issue. He had previously shown support for Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who also drew criticism from Israel for describing its Gaza campaign as "not a war, but a genocide."

In a joint effort, Colombia and Brazil backed South Africa’s complaint against Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, asserting that the Gaza assault constituted a breach of the genocide convention. (ILKHA)