Fidel Castro calls Gaza incursion 'Palestinian Holocaust'

HAVANA, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro railed against Israel's offensive in Gaza in an editorial published in a Havana newspaper.

In an opinion piece titled "Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza," Castro, 87, described Israel's Gaza involvement -- now in the midst of a sustained 72-hour cease-fire -- as "a new, repugnant form of fascism." The editorial was published in Granma, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper.

"Why does the government of this country," a reference to Israel, "think that the world will be impervious to this macabre genocide that is being committed today against the Palestinian people?" he wrote.

Cuba ended diplomatic relations with Israel over the Yom Kippur War in 1973 while Castro was Cuba's prime minister. In 2010, after his retirement, he told Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic that Israel "without a doubt" had a right to existence. Goldberg said Castro, during an interview, expressed "great sympathy for persecuted Jews throughout history."