Colombian President Gustavo Petro says he will formally bring war crime charges against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his regime’s ongoing bloodshed in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Petro said on X on Thursday that his foreign minister Alvaro Leyva would meet with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday to formally prosecute Netanyahu over “the massacre of the Palestinian people’s children and civilians he has caused.”
Israel waged the war on the impoverished Gaza Strip on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups launched the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against Palestinians.
Since then, the occupying regime has embarked on an incessant bombardment of the densely-populated enclave, with the Gaza-based health ministry announcing on Friday that 11,078 people, including 4,506 children, have been killed, and 27,490 others have sustained injuries.
Petro’s announcement came on the heels of a supportive statement for his Algerian counterpart, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who called for a similar prosecution, earlier in the week, against Netanyahu and his regime.
“The Republic of Colombia will contribute to the complaint by the Republic of Algeria filed before the International Criminal Court for war crimes against Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu in light of the massacre of children and civilians of the Palestinian people that he has caused,” the Colombian president said.
Petro previously recalled his ambassador to Tel Aviv over what he called “genocide of Palestinians”, as the Tel Aviv regime has faced mounting international pressure to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has already warned that his office is collecting evidence that could result in an international investigation against Israel’s political and military leaders, as the occupying entity keeps pounding almost all areas and facilities of the blockaded territory, including hospitals, schools and residential buildings.
Israel, like the United States, is not a member of the ICC. It refused to cooperate with the court in 2021 over the war crimes investigation into the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
