Colombian President Gustavo Petro proposed yesterday Wednesday that the effort to secure through negotiations the release of the Israeli hostages of Hamas in the Gaza Strip should proceed with the formation of a “peace commission”, responding to a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“With the clear aim of reaching a consensus (…) I consider it a priority to move quickly towards the cessation of hostilities and the opening of talks for the release of all hostages,” the Latin American head of state said in a letter.

The social democrat Mr. Petro, the first president in Colombia’s history who belongs to the left, openly supports the Palestinian cause and accuses Israel of committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.

“I propose that we move forward by creating a peace commission, made up of various countries, to secure the release (of the hostages) and achieve the larger goal of ending the violence between Israel and Palestine,” Mr. Petros added in his text, response to a letter received from Mr. Netanyahu dated January 11.

In Mr Netanyahu’s letter, published in the Colombian press – its authenticity confirmed by the Israeli embassy – the Israeli prime minister calls on the Colombian president to do “everything possible within his power” to free the hostages held by Hamas in the Palestinian enclave after its attack on October 7.

In his proposal for mediation, the Colombian president refers to a peace process in his own country, in which he was personally among the protagonists, when he and other fighters of M-19—the “Movement of April 19,” a rebel organization of the city of far left— laid down their arms.

This was a “successful example of reconciliation”, noted Mr. Petros, adding that in this spirit and with the same “commitment” he proposed to the United Nations to organize an international conference for peace in Palestine and a second one to end Russia’s war and of Ukraine.

Colombia supports South Africa’s appeal against Israel at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague for alleged violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of the Crime of Genocide.