ADDIS ABABA - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel Sunday of committing "genocide" against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and compared its actions to Adolf Hitler's campaign to exterminate Jews.
In response, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the 78-year-old's comments "shameful and grave" and said his government had called in Brazil's ambassador in protest.
But his comments drew praise from the Palestinian fighters group Hamas, which described the remarks as "an accurate description" of what people were facing in the Gaza Strip that it controls.
Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, where he was attending an African Union summit, that what was happening in the Gaza Strip "isn't a war, it's a genocide".
"It's not a war of soldiers against soldiers. It's a war between a highly prepared army and women and children," added the veteran leftist.
"What's happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people hasn't happened at any other moment in history. Actually, it has happened: when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."
Lula, a prominent voice for the global south whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20, previously condemned Hamas's operation on October 7 on Israel as a "terrorist" act.
But he has since grown vocally critical of Israel's retaliatory military campaign.
Netanyahu called Lula's remarks "Holocaust trivialisation and an attempt to harm the Jewish people and the right of Israel to defend itself".
"The comparison between Israel to the Holocaust of the Nazis and Hitler is crossing a red line," he said in a statement.
"Israel is fighting to defend itself and ensure its future until total victory and it is doing that while upholding international law."
"I have decided with Foreign Minister (Israel) Katz to summon the Brazilian ambassador in Israel for an immediate reproach."
Katz wrote on the X social media platform that the meeting would take place on Monday.
UNRWA contribution
Israeli President Isaac Herzog hit out at "leaders who atrociously accuse the nation state of the Jewish people of the evil of Hitler's deeds", without naming his Brazilian counterpart.
To do so was an "immoral distortion of history", he added.
Israel's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant meanwhile called Lula's comments "outrageous and abhorrent". "Brazil has stood with Israel for years," he wrote on X.
"President Lula supports a genocidal terrorist organisation and in doing so brings great shame to his people, and violates the values of the free world."
Lula also reportedly criticised Western countries' recent decisions to halt aid to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, after Israel accused some of its employees of involvement in the October 7 operation.
Lula, who met with Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh Saturday on the sidelines of the summit, has said Brazil will increase its own contribution to the agency, and urged other countries to do the same.
"When I see the rich world announce that it's halting its contributions to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, I just imagine how big these people's political awareness is and how big the spirit of solidarity in their hearts is," Lula said.
"We need to stop being small when we need to be big."
He reiterated his call for a two-state solution to the conflict, with Palestine "definitively recognised as a full and sovereign state." - AFP