The government of Colombia, a fierce critic of Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, said Thursday it would receive wounded Palestinian children and provide them with medical care.
“We have taken the decision to provide humanitarian support to Palestinian children who will travel with their families to Colombia for rehabilitation,” Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor Jay announced.
She was speaking in Stockholm, where she was on a state visit with President Gustavo Petro.
Jay did not say how many children would be taken in by Colombia, nor how they would be removed from war-torn Gaza.
Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground invasion has killed at least 37,232 people in Gaza and wounded more than 84,000 others, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Since the beginning of June, more than 800 people have been killed and over 2,400 wounded, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reported on Tuesday citing local health authorities.
In May, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said more than 15,000 children had been killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began on 7 October.
Petro, Colombia’s first-ever leftist president, has repeatedly criticized Israel’s onslaught in Gaza and last week suspended coal exports to the country.
Colombia was Israel’s main coal supplier.
Petro also said Colombia would stop purchasing weapons made by Israel, one of the main suppliers of the South American country’s security forces.
In May, Colombia announced it was severing ties with Israel and opening an embassy in Ramallah in the Palestinian territories.
Source: Ahram Online