Amb. Locsin apologizes over tweet on Palestinian children

Philippine Ambassador to the United Kingdom Teodoro Locsin Jr. has apologized for his social media post about killing Palestinian children, Unang Balita reported on Monday.

In a now-deleted post on X (formerly Twitter), Locsin said, "That's why Palestinian children should be killed; they might grow up to become as gullible as innocent Palestinians letting Hamas launch rockets at Israel."

But according to Locsin, his post was just a "sarcastic response to a tweet."

"I immediately deleted my sarcastic response to a tweet as I realized it could be misconstrued and retweeted to incite," Locsin said.

"My apologies to those who did misconstrue my sentiments and did in fact get triggered — I obviously was not advocating for the literal death of anyone, but rather simply for the end of any ideology that condones terrorism in any way, shape or form," he added.

Hamas militants carried out their deadliest attack in Israel's history on October 7, when gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns.

Israel has retaliated with air strikes on Gaza that have razed entire districts.

Over 4,300 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.

In Israel, meanwhile, more than 1,400 people have been killed since the war began. —Joviland Rita/KBK, GMA Integrated News