MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile pulls military attachés from Tel Aviv Embassy

Diplomatic relations with Israel are not severed, Van Klaveren explained

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font defended his decision to withdraw the country's military attachés from Tel Aviv, citing the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza due to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's military actions following the terrorist group Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.

Boric insisted his move was a gesture of “humanity,” not driven by political motives, and quoted testimony from US volunteer surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, who described treating civilians, including children and pregnant women, injured by Israeli attacks in Gaza. “For those who question the position that as head of state I have taken regarding the genocide in Gaza committed by the Netanyahu government, I ask them to listen to the testimony of Feroze Sidhwa, a US volunteer surgeon in Gaza,” Boric said.

The president also shared a UN News publication quoting the healthcare professional: “For 5 weeks in Gaza, I did not see or treat any combatant. My patients were 6-year-old children with shrapnel in their hearts and bullets in their brains, pregnant women with shattered pelvises and a fetus cut in two in the uterus.”

“Refugee mothers in the hospital were baking bread on stoves in the emergency department during mass casualty events as we dealt with the hail of fire and death raining down all around us from all sides,” he added.

Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren supported the decision, condemning the deaths of 54,000 people and the destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, while clarifying that diplomatic relations with Israel would continue. Van Klaveren also explained that the withdrawal was a specific diplomatic response to the crisis, not a complete break in ties. He also contended that Israel's actions were unjustifiable despite its right to self-defense against Hamas.

The Foreign Minister also pointed out that “war crimes are being committed in Israel”, which is why it is necessary to “adopt energetic measures.”

“This measure must be evaluated on its own merits. It is a very specific, very precise measure, and I would not like to speculate on eventual measures to be adopted,” van Klaveren also noted. “We believe that we are facing a very serious humanitarian situation as a consequence of the sustained action of the Israeli army. Nothing justifies the deaths that have occurred on such a massive scale in the territory of Gaza,” he said.