‘What we see in Gaza is the rehearsal of the future’: Colombian President at UN climate summit

BOGOTA, Colombia 

Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Friday compared the “genocide of the Palestinian people” to the future of countries in the Global South in the face of the climate crisis.

“Genocide and barbaric acts unleashed against the Palestinian people is what awaits those who are fleeing the south because of the climate crisis,” he said at the UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai.

He said, “Anti-immigration behaviors of rich countries” are already being seen and the exodus caused by climate change “will be responded to with a lot of violence, with barbarism itself.”

“What we see in Gaza is the rehearsal of the future,” he said.

Petro said if rich countries do not stop consuming oil, coal and gas, there will be billions of “climate victims” in countries that emit very little carbon dioxide who will migrate in search of fresh water.

″Why have large carbon-consuming countries allowed the systematic murder of thousands of children in Gaza? Because Hitler has already entered their homes and they are getting ready to defend their high levels of carbon consumption and reject the exodus it causes,” he said.

Petro has been critical of Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip, which has caused the deaths of more than 15,000 civilians.

He has compared the situation in Gaza to Nazi concentration camps in World War II, a statement that has caused diplomatic tensions with Israel.

Israel restarted combat operations Friday in Gaza, after blaming Hamas for breaking the terms of a humanitarian pause.

Hours later, Hamas reported 109 people had been killed and dozens wounded in airstrikes.