Bolivia cuts Israeli ties as Chile, Colombia recall envoys
Bolivia said on Tuesday it had broken diplomatic ties with Israel because of its “crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip, while neighbors Colombia and Chile recalled their ambassadors to Israel for consultations.
Bolivian officials cited the number of Palestinian casualties in Gaza that have resulted from the over-three-week war between Israel and Hamas.
Bolivia decided to break diplomatic relations with “Israel in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip,” Freddy Mamani, Bolivia’s deputy foreign minister, said at a news conference.
Also, Bolivian President Arce said on social media on Monday, “We reject the war crimes being committed in Gaza. We support international initiatives to guarantee humanitarian aid, in compliance with international law.”
The three South American countries called for a cease-fire, with Bolivia and Chile pushing for the passage of humanitarian aid into the zone, and accusing Israel of violating international law. The nations lambasted Israel’s attacks on Gaza and condemned the deaths of Palestinian citizens.
According to Gaza health authorities, 8,796 people, including 3,542 children, have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7.
Chile decided to recall its ambassador “in the face of the unacceptable violations of international humanitarian law committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip,” the its Foreign Ministry said.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro also announced he was recalling his country’s ambassador to Israel.
“If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people, we cannot remain there,” Petro wrote on X.
LatAm states’ stance
Bolivia is among the first countries to actively break diplomatic relations with Israel over its war in Gaza, retaliation for an Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel by Palestinian Hamas resistance group, who Israel says killed 1,400 people and abducted 240 prisoners.
But other Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Brazil, have also called for a cease-fire.
According to UN officials, more than 1.4 million, of Gaza’s civilian population of about 2.3 million, have been made homeless.
In Asia, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev expressed strong solidarity with the people of Palestine and supported their right to create an independent state.
He also allocated $1.5 million for essential humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip
Mirziyoyev emphasized the need for ceasing hostilities and seeking a peaceful resolution. He warned that an escalation of violence could have far-reaching and unpredictable consequences, affecting not only the Middle East but also distant countries.
Limited evacuations allowed
As Israeli forces pressed their battle against Hamas fighters in the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday, a first group of injured evacuees from Gaza crossed into Egypt under a Qatari-mediated deal, Egyptian media and a source at the border said.
The evacuees were driven in ambulances through the Rafah border crossing. Under the deal reached between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, a number of foreigners and critically wounded people will be allowed to leave the besieged territory, where Israeli airstrikes pounded Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, for the second day Wednesday.
Even as bombings have driven tens of thousands from their homes and food, water and fuel run low, no one has been allowed to leave the embattled enclave, except for four prisoners released by Hamas. Another prisoner was rescued by Israeli forces earlier this week.
The Wednesday evacuation followed another day of bloodshed in Gaza, in which an Israeli air strike on Tuesday killed about 50 people in a refugee camp, according to Palestinian health officials.
Israel claimed the attack on Jabalia killed a senior Hamas commander and many other fighters.
Israel commits ‘massacres’ to cover ‘defeats’
Meanwhile, the leader of Palestinian resistance group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Wednesday Israel commits "massacres" in the Gaza war to cover its own "defeats".
Israel is "committing barbaric massacres against unarmed civilians", he said in a speech broadcast by Al Jazeera, adding that "its villainy will not save them from resounding defeat".
Graveyard for children
The UN said Tuesday the Gaza Strip has become a graveyard for thousands of children, fearing more may die also of dehydration.
The UN children’s agency UNICEF said there was a risk that the number of child deaths directly from bombardment could be eclipsed.
“Our gravest fears about the reported numbers of children killed becoming dozens, then hundreds, and ultimately thousands were realized in just a fortnight,” UNICEF spokesman James Elder said.
“The numbers are appalling; reportedly more than 3,450 children killed; staggeringly this rises significantly every day.
“Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.”
Without greater humanitarian access into Gaza, “the deaths from the attacks, they could absolutely be the tip of the iceberg,” Elder told reporters in Geneva, via video-link.
He said more than one million children living in the Gaza Strip were also suffering from a lack of clean water. Elder said that according to figures from health faculties in Gaza, 940 children were missing.
UNICEF is calling for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire, with all access crossings into Gaza opened for the safe, sustained and unimpeded access of humanitarian aid, including water, food, medical supplies, and fuel. Also, UN humanitarian agency spokesman Jens Laerke said, “It’s almost unbearable to think about children buried under rubble, but (with) very little opportunity or possibility for getting them out.”
‘Public health catastrophe’
Amid overcrowding, mass displacement and damage to infrastructure, the World Health Organization spokesperson, Christian Lindmeier, warned of the risk of civilian deaths not directly linked to Israeli
bombardment.
“It’s an imminent public health catastrophe that looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure,” Lindmeier told reporters. “We have 130 premature infants that are dependent on incubators, of which 61 percent approximately are in the north,”
he said.
Communications ‘completely’ shut off
Israel laid a total siege on Gaza following October 7, cutting off food, fuel, water and power supplies to the territory. From October 21-30, 143 trucks carrying food, water and medicine entered the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
The Palestinian telecommunications agency said that internet and phone networks were down across the strip on Wednesday, in the second such blackout in the besieged territory in less than a week.
“To our good people in the beloved country, we are sorry to announce that communications and internet services have been completely cut off in Gaza,” the Palestine Telecommunications Company (Paltel) said
on X.
Global network monitor Netblocks confirmed that Gaza “is in the midst of a new internet blackout, with high impact to the last remaining major operator, Paltel.”
‘All lives matter’
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron called for “civilians in Gaza to be protected first”.
He said Wednesday he “hates the debate” over the value of “Jewish lives” and “Palestinian lives” and called for “civilians in Gaza to be protected first”.
"All lives matter in this world," he stressed.
Also, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Al-Quds blamed Israel Tuesday for the overnight bombing of its cultural center in Gaza and condemned the “direct and unjustified attack”.
Iran’s warning
In the latest in a series of warnings from Iran, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned Israel and the United States that the continuation of the war against the besieged Gaza Strip could result in “another surprise” by the resistance forces.
“In my meeting yesterday, political officials of Hamas noted that in case the war is not stopped, the region would be closer to the level of taking a bigger decision,” Amir-Abdollahain told a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan.
“If an immediate cease-fire doesn’t take place in the Gaza Strip and the rapid attacks by US and the Zionist regime continue, then the consequences would be harsh,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran continues to follow up on political talks to end the Israeli bombing as soon as possible.
The country says it supports Hamas but did not play any role in the resistance group’s attack on Israel last month. Both Iran and Turkey have condemned Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza.
Fidan, for his part, said Turkey doesn’t want the conflict in Gaza to spiral into a regional war.
“It is not difficult to predict that this spiral of violence will grow,” without a permanent solution to the war, he warned.
AP, AFP, Reuters, and Press TV contributed to this report.