Colombian president Gustavo Petro announced a decision that the country will cut off its diplomatic ties with Israel over what the senior official described as ‘genocidal’ war on Gaza.

The decision would take effect from Thursday May 2 as the Columbian president addressed a May Day rally referring to the Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu as ‘genocidal president.’

Petro told thousands of supporters that the world cannot accept “genocide, the extermination of an entire people.”

“If Palestine dies, humanity dies,” he said to the crowd some of whom waving Palestinian flags.

Petro had previously come out in support of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who also provoked the ire of Israel for saying its Gaza campaign “isn’t a war, it’s a genocide.”

Colombia and Brazil supported South Africa’s complaint against Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, saying the Gaza assault amounted to a breach of the genocide convention.