“Ready to participate.” Colombia calls for sending UN peacekeeping forces to Gaza

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Colombian President Gustavo Petro called on the United Nations on Wednesday to send peacekeeping forces to Gaza, noting that Israel continues to commit "massacres" in the city of Rafah.

President Petro wrote, in a post on the “X” platform: “There is no other alternative but international peacekeeping forces in the Gaza Strip. Colombia will be part of these forces.” He expressed his support for Palestine by transmitting news condemning Israel after the occupation army's attack on a camp for displaced Palestinians in the city of Rafah, noting that Israel continues to commit "massacres" in Rafah.

On May 3, Colombia announced the official severing of its diplomatic relations with Israel, due to the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Within 48 hours since Sunday evening, Israel killed 73 displaced people in three massacres that targeted their tents in areas in western Rafah Governorate that Tel Aviv claimed were “safe,” according to the government media office in Gaza.

The recent massacres took place in Rafah despite the issuance of the International Court of Justice, with the approval of 13 of its members while two members rejected, on Friday, new temporary measures demanding that Israel “immediately stop its attack on Rafah,” “maintain the opening of the Rafah crossing to facilitate the entry of aid into Gaza,” and “provide A report to the court within a month on the steps it has taken in this regard.

These new measures came from the court, which is the highest judicial body in the United Nations, in response to a request from South Africa as part of a comprehensive lawsuit filed at the end of December 2023, accusing Tel Aviv of “committing genocide crimes” in Gaza.

Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 117,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them children and women, and about 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of children and the elderly.