CARACAS, October 15. /TASS/. Israel is waging a war of extermination against the Arab peoples, said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, expressing solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

"The international media insist that Israel is waging a war against Hamas and Hezbollah. This is not true - this is Netanyahu's war of extermination against the people of Palestine, the Arab people in Lebanon, this is not even a war, but genocide," Maduro said on the television program titled With Maduro Plus, which is broadcast on the Venezolana de Television channel.

Maduro strongly condemned Netanyahu's demand to withdraw UN peacekeeping forces from southern Lebanon.

The peoples of Palestine and Lebanon "are victims of genocide, of the policy of extermination by Israel," said Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto, who took part in Maduro's program. He reported that on Monday, the first group of 44 Venezuelans who were in Lebanon arrived in Caracas from Syria on a Conviasa airliner. Gil also noted that humanitarian aid for the people of Lebanon had been delivered to Damascus.