President Lula Mentions Genocide in Gaza, Israel Summons Brazilian Ambassador

Brazilian President Lula while attending the UN Africa Summit. (Twitter/@LulaOficial)

JAKARTA - Israel on Sunday said it had summoned the Brazilian Ambassador to the country, after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was deemed to have made statements deemed embarrassing and serious.

Speaking Sunday morning at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Lula called Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip "genocide."

"What happened in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people is unparalleled in history. Indeed, it happened when Hitler decided to kill the Jews," he said, according to CNN, February 19.

In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on social media limit."

"Israel fought for its defense and secured its future until it achieved complete victory and did so while upholding international law," wrote PM Netanyahu.

"This is an attempt to trivialize the Holocaust and an attempt to attack the Jewish people and Israel's right to defend itself. Making comparisons between Israel and the Nazis and Hitler is an act of crossing a red line," PM Netanyahu said in a statement, reported by Reuters.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also criticized the statement in his post on X's social media.

In a separate statement, the Brazilian Israel Confederation said President Lula's remarks were a "distorted distortion of reality" and "offend the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and their descendants" and accused his government of taking an "extreme and unbalanced" stance towards the conflict.

Separately, the Presidential Palace and Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

It is known that Israel has vowed not to stop its campaign in Gaza until Hamas is destroyed and all remaining hostages from the group have been freed, following its October 7 attack on Israel.