Bolivia announces the severing of diplomatic relations with Israel against the backdrop of the war in Gaza

Bolivia announced on Tuesday the severing of its diplomatic relations with Israel against the backdrop of the war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Deputy Foreign Minister Freddy Mamani said in a press conference that the government decided to sever diplomatic relations with the State of Israel, rejecting and condemning the aggressive and disproportionate attack being launched in the Gaza Strip.

Presidential Minister Maria Neela Prada also announced that La Paz is sending humanitarian aid to Gaza.

She said in the same press conference, “We demand an end to the attacks in the Gaza Strip”.

She noted that these attacks have so far caused the deaths of thousands of civilians and the forced displacement of Palestinians.

The government of leftist President Luis Arce is the first in Latin America to sever its relations with Israel since the conflict broke out in the Gaza Strip following attacks launched by Hamas on October 7th on Israel, which according to the Israeli authorities killed more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Hamas was quick to welcome La Paz’s position, while the Israeli government did not immediately react.

Hamas said in a statement, “We highly value Bolivia’s severing of diplomatic relations with the occupying entity, and we renew our call to our normalized Arab and Islamic countries to sever all relations with Israel”.

Bolivia announced the resumption of ties with Israel in 2019, a decade after severing them due to previous attacks on the Gaza Strip.

Several leaders in the region expressed their opposition to the attack, which the Hamas Ministry of Health says has so far killed more than 8,500 Palestinians, including more than 3,400 children.

Bolivia’s decision comes after Colombia asked the Israeli ambassador to leave the country before retracting the statements in a diplomatic debate over the attack.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council, urged a ceasefire.

He said that the “terrorist attack” launched by Palestinian activists against Israel does not justify the killing of “millions of innocent people” in Gaza.

He added in a direct speech on social media that Hamas carrying out an attack against Israel doesn’t give Israel the right to kill millions of innocent people.