Brazilian President Lula on Monday accused Israel of “killing innocent people without any criteria” in the Gaza Strip, judging the response of the Jewish state “as serious” as the Hamas attacks. “After Hamas’ acts of terrorism, the consequences, Israel’s solution turned out to be as serious as Hamas’s. They kill innocent people without any criteria,” said Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during an official ceremony in Brasilia.
The president of Latin America’s largest country also accused Israel of “throwing bombs where there are children, such as hospitals, under the pretext that terrorists would be there.” “It’s inexplicable. First, you have to save the women and children, then you fight with whoever you want,” Lula insisted.
Lula will welcome Monday evening at an air base in Brasilia 22 Brazilian citizens and ten members of their families who lived in Gaza and were able to be evacuated on Sunday by crossing the Egyptian border, after more than a month of waiting.
On Thursday, Celso Amorim, a close advisor to Lula who represented Brazil at a humanitarian conference on Gaza in Paris, declared himself in favor of a “ceasefire”, estimating that the deaths of thousands of Palestinian children in Israeli bombings were reminiscent of “genocide”.