HAVANA, December 4. /TASS/. Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio has described the situation in the Gaza Strip as genocide and called for the US to be held accountable for its "complicity in the greatest crime of the 21st centur.y"
"According to news agencies, 700 Palestinians have been slaughtered in the past 24 hours. If this is not genocide, the term must be changed. The US government must be made accountable for its complicity with the greatest crime of the 21st century," he wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) page.
Cuba is an active supporter of Palestine and hosts pro-Palestinian demonstrations attended by the country’s top leadership.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 200 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also underway in the West Bank.