Brazilian President Calls for Global Action against Israeli Regime’s Massacres in Gaza
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva denounced Israel's recent attacks on Palestinians in Gaza which have resulted in significant civilian casualties and urged international intervention to halt the regime’s violence.
He made the remarks on Sunday following an Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza, which resulted in at least 90 deaths and 300 injuries.
Additionally, a strike on a mosque at the al-Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza claimed 20 civilian lives.
On the same day, another Israeli strike targeted a school sheltering displaced individuals, killing 15 people.
"The most recent bombings in the Gaza Strip, which claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people, are unacceptable," said a statement issued by Lula's office.
Urging the world not to remain silent in the face of Israel's deadly strikes on Palestinians in Gaza, the Brazilian president added, “It is appalling that they continue to collectively punish the Palestinian people.”
“Tens of thousands (of Palestinians) have already died in successive (Israeli) attacks since last year, many of them in delimited humanitarian zones that should be protected," the statement added.
The Brazilian president concluded by saying, "We, the political leaders of the democratic world, cannot remain silent in the face of this endless massacre."
Tensions have been rising between the South American country and the Israeli regime ever since the latter launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
Israel’s bloody onslaught has so far killed 38,584 Palestinians, mostly women and children, leaving 88,881 others injured.
Brazil withdrew its ambassador to Israel in May after its president accused the occupying regime of genocide.
Lula, who is an outspoken critic of Israel’s war on Gaza, said in February that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
In early July, Brazil adopted a free trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority in a show of support for the Palestinian statehood.
“The agreement is a concrete contribution to an economically viable Palestinian state, which can live peacefully and harmoniously with its neighbors,” Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry had already recognized the Palestinian state and allowed for its embassy to be built in the Brazilian capital in 2010.
Brazil is not the sole South American country to show a strong reaction to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Earlier in May, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro broke diplomatic relations between Bogota and Tel Aviv, after he suspended purchases of weapons from the regime.
Petro had previously compared Israel’s appalling actions in Gaza to those of Nazi Germany.