The Argentine government included Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in its list of terrorist organizations, a press release by the President’s Office said on Friday.

The government stated that Argentina should “return to the Western civilization” and that those who attack it should be “declared what they are — terrorists.”

With Argentina, that makes eight countries — plus the European Union — that have so far labeled the military and political group a terrorist organization.

Hamas, which governs parts of the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007, attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, leaving a toll of 1,139 dead. Israel launched a military operation on the Gaza Strip following the attack, which has killed more than 46,000 people, including 16,000 children, and is ongoing to this day.

The release highlighted Hamas’  links with Iran, arguing that an Argentine high court had concluded that Tehran had orchestrated the 1994 bombing of the AMIA, a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. The attack killed 85 people and injured over 300.

In the legal ruling the government is referencing, however, there is only one judge who states that  Iran was the mastermind behind the bombing. 

The investigation into the attack was hampered by corruption and cover-up attempts, and the case has become a divisive political issue in Argentina. While the judiciary investigated allegations that the Iranian government and terrorist organization Hezbollah were behind the bombing, this has never been consistently proven.

Since he took office, President Javier Milei has aligned himself with Israel. In February, he visited the country and met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During the trip, he promised to officially designate Hamas as a terrorist group and move Argentina’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

At that time, Hamas issued a statement saying that Milei’s plans constituted “an infringement of the rights of our Palestinian people to their land.”