Shafaq News/ Bolivia announced the severing of its diplomatic relations with Israel. At the same time, Chile and Colombia recalled their ambassadors from Israel in protest against its ongoing attack on Gaza, which led to the killing of at least 8,500 Palestinians, most of them children and women.

The three Latin American countries condemned the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and the killing of Palestinian citizens.

The Bolivia Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday, that the government had decided to cut its diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, accusing Israel of “committing crimes against humanity in its attacks on the Gaza Strip,” according to Reuters.

Bolivian Deputy Foreign Minister, Freddy Mamani said in a press conference that the government “decided to cut diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, in rejection and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate attack being launched in the Gaza Strip,” as reported by Agence France-Presse.

Bolivia was one of the first countries to cut diplomatic relations with Israel because of its war in Gaza.

This is not the first time that Bolivia has taken such a step, as it previously cut diplomatic relations with Israel in 2009 against its attacks on the Gaza Strip.

“We reject the war crimes being committed in Gaza,” Bolivian President Luis Arce said on social media on Monday. “We support international initiatives to ensure (the entry of) humanitarian aid, following international law.”

In Santiago, Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced the withdrawal of his country’s ambassador from Israel due to its aggression against Gaza.

Boric said, “It does not matter how powerful the state is. We need our foreign policy to stand with human rights and defend them with all our might.”

In response to a gift he received from the Jewish community in Chile, President Boric said, “I thank you for the step, but you can start by asking Israel to return the Palestinian lands it occupied illegally.”

The Chilean Foreign Ministry said, “Chile strongly condemns and monitors with great concern these military operations.”

The ministry added that Chile considers the Israeli operations as “collective punishment” of the civilian population in Gaza.

It also called for an immediate cessation of hostilities, the release of Hamas hostages, and the allowing the passage of humanitarian aid to the population of the Gaza Strip.

In Bogota, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced, in a post on X platform on Tuesday, that he had summoned his country’s ambassador to Israel due to its war in Gaza, describing the Israeli attacks as a “massacre of the Palestinian people.”

Petro said, “I have decided to recall our ambassador to Israel. If Israel does not stop the massacre committed against the Palestinian people, we will not be able to stay there,” according to Reuters.

On October 17, Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva asked the Israeli ambassador in Bogota to “apologize and leave” after Israeli diplomacy responded to statements by President Petro in which he addressed the war between Israel and Hamas.

The Colombian president likened the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip to the Nazis’ persecution of Jews during the World War.