MANAGUA: Nicaragua has announced plans to break off relations with Israel over the war in Gaza, calling the Israeli government “fascist and genocidal.”
Left-wing President Daniel Ortega, who has been fiercely critical of Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas, ordered ties to be cut over Israel’s attacks on Palestinian territories, said Vice President Rosario Murillo, who is also Ortega’s wife.
The move is essentially symbolic, with ties between Israel and the Central American country virtually nonexistent.
Israel has no ambassador in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua.
FASTFACT
UN officials have expressed concern that the ongoing Israeli offensive in northern Gaza could disrupt the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign.
Nicaragua has twice broken off ties with Israel — once in 2010 under Ortega and in 1982 under the Sandinista revolutionary government led by Ortega following the country’s 1979 revolution.
UN officials have expressed concern that the ongoing Israeli offensive and evacuation orders in northern Gaza could disrupt the second phase of its polio vaccination campaign set to begin next week.
Healthcare officials have reported that dozens of facilities in Gaza are under evacuation orders from the Israeli military, complicating humanitarian efforts amid the conflict.
Aid groups carried out an initial round of vaccinations last month after a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus in August, in the first such case in the territory in 25 years.
