The government of Colombia, a fierce critic of Israel's war in Gaza, said Thursday it would receive injured Palestinian children and provide them with medical care.
"We have taken the decision to provide humanitarian support to Palestinian children who will travel with their families to Colombia for rehabilitation," Deputy Minister of Multilateral Affairs Elizabeth Taylor Jay announced.
She was speaking in Stockholm, where she was on a state visit with President Gustavo Petro.
Jay did not say how many children would be taken in by Colombia, nor how they would be removed from war-torn Gaza.
The Gaza war began after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,194 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
The militants also seized 251 hostages. Of these, 116 remain in Gaza although the army says 41 are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has left at least 37,232 people dead in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-ruled territory's health ministry.
Petro, Colombia's first-ever leftist president, has repeatedly criticized Israel's armed response to the Hamas attack, and last week suspended coal exports to the country.
Colombia was Israel's main coal supplier.
Petro also said Colombia would stop purchasing weapons made by Israel, one of the main suppliers of the South American country's security forces.
In May, Colombia announced it was severing ties with Israel and opening an embassy in Ramallah in the Palestinian territories.
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