Bogota/Santiago, Nov 1 (IANS): Colombia and Chile have recalled their respective ambassadors to Israel over the Jewish nation's offensive in Gaza amid the ongoing conflict with the Hamas militant group.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said: "I have decided to call our ambassador in Israel for consultation. If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people, we cannot be there."

In a statement late Tuesday, the Colombian Foreign Ministry said that the government expresses its strongest rejection of the actions of the Israeli security forces in Gaza, and reiterates the urgency of a ceasefire and the obligation that Israel's security forces have to observe international humanitarian law, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The full recognition of the two States by all nations of the world and dialogue between the parties should bring peace to the region," it added.

Meanwhile, the Chilean Foreign Ministry said its decision to recall the envoy to Israel for consultations was over the country's "violation of international humanitarian law" in the Gaza Strip.

"Chile strongly condemns and observes with great concern that these military operations, which at this point in their development involve collective punishment of the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza, do not respect fundamental norms of International Law, as demonstrated by the more than eight thousand civilian victims, mostly women and childrent," the Ministry said.

Chile's presidency called for "an immediate end to the hostilities" in order to "deploy a humanitarian support operation to help the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people and civilian victims", it added.

Colombia and Chile's moves came just hours after Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Israel.