Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday accused Israel of committing “genocide” towards Palestinian civilians within the Gaza Strip and in contrast its actions to Adolf Hitler’s marketing campaign to exterminate Jews.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu known as the 78-year-old’s feedback “shameful and severe” and mentioned his authorities had summoned Brazil’s ambassador in protest.
However his feedback drew reward from the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which described the remarks as “an correct description” of what folks confronted within the Gaza Strip they management.
Lula advised reporters in Addis Ababa, the place he was attending an African Union summit, that what occurred within the Gaza Strip “will not be a conflict, however a genocide.”
“It isn’t a conflict of troopers towards troopers. It’s a conflict between a well-prepared military and girls and kids,” the left-wing veteran added.
“What is occurring within the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian folks has by no means occurred at another time in historical past. It really occurred: when Hitler determined to kill the Jews.”
Lula, a distinguished voice for the worldwide south whose nation at the moment holds the rotating presidency of the G20, beforehand condemned Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 assault on Israel as a “terrorist” act.
However he has since change into outspokenly vital of Israel’s navy retaliation marketing campaign.
Netanyahu known as Lula’s feedback “the trivialization of the Holocaust and an try and hurt the Jewish folks and Israel’s proper to defend itself.”
“The comparability between Israel and the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler crosses a pink line,” he mentioned in a press release.
“Israel fights to defend itself and safe its future till complete victory, and it does so whereas upholding worldwide legislation.”
“I’ve determined along with Overseas Minister (Israel) Katz to summon the Brazilian ambassador to Israel for a right away rebuke.”
Katz wrote on social media platform X that the assembly would happen on Monday.
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Israeli President Isaac Herzog lashed out at “leaders who gruesomely accuse the nation-state of the Jewish folks of the evil of Hitler’s actions,” with out mentioning his Brazilian counterpart by title.
To take action was an “immoral distortion of historical past,” he added.
Israeli Protection Minister Yoav Gallant, in the meantime, known as Lula’s feedback “outrageous and abhorrent.” “Brazil has supported Israel for years,” he wrote on X.
“President Lula helps a genocidal terrorist group – Hamas, bringing nice disgrace to his folks and violating the values ​​of the free world.”
The October 7 assault resulted within the deaths of about 1,160 folks in Israel, largely civilians, in response to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants have additionally taken about 250 folks hostage, 130 of whom are nonetheless in Gaza, together with 30 who’re presumed useless, in response to Israeli figures.
The Israeli assault on Gaza has killed a minimum of 28,858 folks, largely girls and kids, in response to the Well being Ministry of the Hamas-held territory.
Lula criticized latest choices by Western nations to chop help to the UN company for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused a few of its workers of involvement within the October 7 assault.
Lula, who met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit, has mentioned Brazil will improve its personal contribution to the group and urged different nations to do the identical.
“After I see the wealthy world asserting that it’s ending its contributions to humanitarian help to the Palestinians, I think about how nice the political consciousness of those folks is and the way nice the spirit of solidarity is of their hearts,” Lula mentioned.
“We should cease being small once we needs to be large.”
He reiterated his name for a two-state answer to the battle, with Palestine “definitively acknowledged as a full and sovereign state.”
