He said: “This is a war between a well-prepared army and women and children” (file photo)
Brazil:
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, comparing its actions to Adolf Hitler’s campaign to exterminate the Jews.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the 78-year-old’s comments “shameful and serious” and said his government had summoned the Brazilian ambassador in protest.
But his comments were praised by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which said they “accurately described” the situation faced by people in the Gaza strip it controls.
Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa at an African Union summit that what was happening in Gaza was “not a war, it was genocide.”
The veteran leftist added: “This is not a war between soldiers and soldiers. This is a war between well-prepared troops and women and children.”
“What is happening to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip has never happened at any other moment in history. In fact, it has already happened: when Hitler decided to massacre the Jews.”
Lula, a key voice for the Global South, which currently holds the G20 presidency, previously condemned Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, calling it an act of “terrorism.”
But he has since begun to publicly criticize Israel’s retaliatory military actions.
Netanyahu called Lula’s remarks “a trivialization of the Holocaust and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to self-defense.”
“Comparing Israel to the Nazis and Hitler’s Holocaust crosses a red line,” he said in a statement.
“Israel is fighting to defend itself and secure its future until total victory is achieved, and to do so while upholding international law.”
“I have decided with (Israeli) Foreign Minister Katz to immediately summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel to denounce.”
Katz wrote on the X social media platform that the meeting would take place on Monday.
UNRWA’s contribution
Israeli President Isaac Herzog lashed out at “leaders who brutally accuse the Jewish nation-state of its crimes against Hitler,” without naming the Brazilian president.
He added that doing so would be an “unethical distortion of history.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yov Galante called Lula’s comments “outrageous and abhorrent.” “Brazil has stood with Israel for many years,” he wrote on the X.
“President Lula supports the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas, and in doing so brings great shame to his people and violates the values of the free world.”
The Oct. 7 attack killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli data.
According to Israeli data, militants have also taken about 250 people hostage, 130 of whom are still in Gaza, and 30 of them are presumed dead.
Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Lula criticized Western countries’ recent decision to withhold aid to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused some of its employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 attack.
Lula, who met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayeh on the sidelines of the summit on Saturday, said Brazil would increase its contributions to the agency and urged other countries to do the same.
“When I see wealthy countries announcing that they will stop providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians, I can only imagine how politically aware these people are and how much solidarity they have in their hearts,” Lula said.
“We can’t afford to be small when we need to be big.”
He reiterated his call for a two-state solution to the conflict, with Palestine “finally recognized as a full, sovereign state.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
