Chile’s President Gabriel Boric has branded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a war criminal for the “barbarity” of his actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera reports.

“What Benjamin Netanyahu has done is a war crime, a crime against humanity,” Boric said at a Christmas event for Palestinians in Chile held in Santiago.

“We are deeply pained and shaken not only by what is happening in Gaza but also by the events in the West Bank,” he added, referring to Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank attacking Palestinians there.

“There is no room for half-measures in the defence of humanity,” he said, calling for renewed efforts towards peace. “We are gathered here today to defend humanity.”

Chile is home to some half a million people of Palestinian descent, Al Jazeera notes.