US slams Colombia president's remarks on Gaza

BOGOTA (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday criticised remarks made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro in which he compared Israeli government comments to those made by Nazis, and called on him to condemn Hamas.

Petro, a voracious poster on X, formerly known as Twitter, has posted repeatedly on the platform after the deadliest attack on civilians in Israeli history was carried out on Saturday by Hamas, the group that rules the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant drew international condemnation by announcing on Monday a "total blockade" to stop food and fuel reaching Gaza, home to 2.3 million people. Gallant said Israel was battling "beastly people."

"This is what the Nazis said about the Jews. Democratic societies cannot allow Nazism to reestablish itself in international politics," Petro wrote, adding that a discourse of hate would lead to "a holocaust," in response to the widely reported comments from Gallant.

"We strongly condemn President Petro's statements and call on him to condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, for its barbaric murder of Israeli men, women and children," Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt of the office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism (SEAS) said on X.

Israel has vowed to eliminate Hamas and has carried out a massive bombing campaign, killing over 1,400 Palestinians and injuring more than 6,000.

Public broadcaster Kan said the Israeli death toll from the attack had risen to more than 1,300.

Petro has also compared Gaza to the Auschwitz concentration camp that was run by Nazi guards during World War Two as well as to the Warsaw Ghetto, which was destroyed by the German military following an uprising by Jews confined there.

Lipstadt, a historian, successfully defeated a libel case brought by British author David Irving after she labeled him a Holocaust denier.

(Reporting by Oliver Griffin; Editing by Mark Porter)