COLOMBIAN President Gustavo Petro announced on Wednesday that his government will break diplomatic relations with Israel, effective from Thursday over the Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza.

Announcing the break, Mr Petro described Israel’s siege of Gaza as “genocide.”

He previously suspended purchases of weapons from Israel and compared that country’s actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.

Speaking in Wednesday’s International Workers’ Day march in Bogota to promote his proposed healthcare, pension and labour reforms, President Petro said: “Tomorrow, diplomatic relations with the state of Israel will be broken for having a genocidal president.

“If Palestine dies, humanity dies, and we are not going to let it die.”

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz hit back on the X social media platform, saying: “History will remember that Gustavo Petro decided to side with the most despicable monsters known to mankind.

“Relations between Israel and Colombia always were warm and no antisemitic and hate-filled president will succeed in changing that.”

He said: “The state of Israel will continue to defend its citizens without worry and without fear.”

Weeks after Israeli launched its military offensive on Gaza Mr Petro took the decision to recall Colombia’s ambassador to Israel.

Historically, Colombia had been one of Israel’s closest partners in Latin America. But relations between the two nations have cooled since Mr Petro was elected as Colombia’s first left-wing president in 2022.

Colombia uses Israeli-built warplanes and machine guns to fight drug cartels and rebel groups, and both countries signed a free trade agreement in 2020.

The South American country deepened its military ties with Israel in the late 1980s by purchasing Kfir fighter jets that were used by Colombia’s air force in numerous attacks on remote guerilla camps.