MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan gov't says Israel entitled to self-defense

“It is essential to seek diplomatic solutions,” Paganini underlined

Uruguayan Foreign Ministry Omar Paganini Monday underlined Israel's right to self-defense on the first anniversary of the Hamas raids in which over 1,000 people were killed and over 200 taken hostage to the Gaza Strip, thus triggering Tel Aviv's full-scale military response. Montevideo's top diplomat also expressed his concern given the number of civilian casualties and forced displacements while urging all parties to de-escalate the conflict.

“It is essential to seek diplomatic solutions that will facilitate the immediate release of hostages and move towards a pacification in the Middle East. The actors on the ground are the ones who must work on this,” Paganini stressed in a statement. “This development is unacceptable from the point of view of the principles and values that guide our foreign policy,” the document signed by Paganini went on.

The Foreign Minister referred to the Oct. 7, 2023, incursion as a “brutal attack” that produced a “disaster” in “a single day.”

“We understand that the government of Israel has the right to defend itself,” Paganini underlined. “Israel was assisted by the right to defend itself against this unjustifiable aggression,” the statement also pointed out.

“At the same time, we are concerned about the escalation that is taking place in the region and we call on everyone to de-escalate this conflict and to seek diplomatic solutions, leading to a cease-fire, the immediate release of the hostages and, if possible, progress towards a peaceful solution in the Middle East,” Paganini went on.

Meanwhile, National Party presidential candidate Álvaro Delgado wrote on X that “one year after the biggest murder of Jews in one day since the Shoah, we vindicate our condemnation to terrorism, our support to Israel, to its right to defend itself and we reiterate the request for the release of the kidnapped.”

“365 days of pain, of mourning, of funerals. 365 since Hamas murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 others. 365 days since Hamas raped and abused men, women, and children from 15 different countries. Today we remember the massacre of October 7, 2023. Today we remind the world why we are fighting Hamas and those who threaten us on all fronts,” said Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Roni Kaplan, of Uruguayan descent.

Kaplan also recalled in a video on social media that 101 hostages were still hostage in Gaza. “We will continue to operate to return the hostages to Gaza and ensure that all of our civilians can sleep without a terrorist threat at their doorstep.”