South Africa’s third biggest political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, has held a protest outside the Israeli embassy in the capital, Pretoria.

Party leader, Julius Malema, once again called for the closure of the embassy after saying Israel’s government had “no respect for humanity”.

Mr Malema also urged retailers in the country to remove Israe­li-produced goods from their shelves by the end of October.

“If they don’t remove products from Israel, we’ll remove them ourselves. We don’t want Israeli products sold in South Africa, we don’t want food from people who have the blood of innocent people on their hands,” said Mr Malema.