Colombia’s President Petro condemns attack on flotilla, expels Israeli diplomats
President Gustavo Petro has expelled the entire Israeli diplomatic delegation from the South American country in response to Israel’s interception of Gaza flotilla activists, including two Colombian nationals.
In a post on X, Petro also said a free trade agreement between Colombia and Israel had been “denounced immediately” in response to the “new international crime by Benjamin Netanyahu”.
“Here Netanyahu demonstrates his worldwide hypocrisy and why he is a worldwide criminal who must be captured,” Petro said in another post.
Petro also said the country’s Foreign Ministry intended to file lawsuits against Israel and called for support from international lawyers.
Todo el qué se alegre porque un gobierno totalitario detiene jóvenes civiles en aguas internacionales, es porque nunca entendió que es civilización. https://t.co/XVaJX0UOzQ
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 1, 2025
Israeli interception is not an arrest, it’s kidnapping
Hassan Jabareen, the director of Palestinian-run legal centre Adalah, which has previously represented Gaza flotilla activists, has described Israel’s interception of the vessels in international waters as a “kidnapping, not arrest”.
Jabareen explained that flotilla participants have been taken to Ashdod port and may face deportation or court hearings within days.
Venezuela condemns Israel’s ‘cowardly act of piracy’ against flotilla
A statement posted on Telegram by Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said the Israeli military attacked a “civilian and peaceful mission whose sole purpose was to deliver 5,500 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people subjected to hunger and extermination”.
The statement said that the Israeli military boarding boats of the flotilla in international waters “exposes, once again, the criminal nature of the Zionist regime”.
“The blockade of humanitarian aid is a tool of deliberate war, the continuation of genocide by other means, seeing to annihilate the population by starvation to complement their indiscriminate bombings,” it said.
Turkiye slams Israeli raid on Gaza flotilla, demands ‘immediate release’ of citizens
Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry has blasted Israel’s interception of the Gaza flotilla, saying the military action against civilian vessels in international waters endangers the lives of innocent civilians, the country’s official Anadolu news agency reports.
“This attack, which targeted civilians acting peacefully without resorting to violence, is proof that the fascist and militarist policies implemented by the genocidal Netanyahu government, which has condemned Gaza to famine, are not limited to Palestinians,” the ministry said in a statement quoted by Anadolu.
The interception of the flotilla and arrest of activists show that Israeli forces target “everyone who struggles against the oppression imposed by Israel”, the ministry said.
All steps would now be taken to secure the release of Turkish citizens detained by the Israeli forces, the ministry said, adding that Turkiye’s government would launch legal action against the perpetrators of the attack on the flotilla.
