Uruguayan President Calls Attacks on Gaza Genocidal

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica said that he wishes that Israel and Palestine can find a path to peace by excluding the “nationalist extreme hate” that some groups spread in both nations.

“Unfortunately the extremists are fed with hate. Sometimes it seems that Likud (Israel’s extreme-right party) needs Hamas, and others that Hamas needs Likud to exist," said Mujica in a program in Radio Uruguay.

The president declared that both groups confuse people about their history and promote the aversion between Palestinians and Israelis. 

Since the beginning of the attacks, close to 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's military forces, most of them civilians and children.

Mujica has defined the Israelis attacks on civil population in Gaza as a genocide, and has said that the consequences of this operation are catastrophic.

The Israeli Embassy in Uruguay released a statement saying that its government didn’t expect this kind of declaration from a friendly country. On the other side, Palestine’s National Authority has expressed its gratitude with Uruguay for the support that it has given to the nation.