Israeli President Isaac Herzog, without naming his Brazilian counterpart, attacked “the leaders who cruelly impose Hitler’s evil deeds on the nation state of the Jewish people”.
He said that doing so would be an “immoral distortion of history”.
Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Galant, meanwhile, called Lula’s comments “outrageous and disgusting”. “Brazil has stood with Israel for years,” he wrote on X.
“President Lula supports a genocidal terrorist organization – Hamas, and in doing so brings great shame to his people, and violates the values of the free world.”
The October 7 attack killed about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
According to Israeli data, the militants took about 250 people hostage, 130 of whom are still in Gaza, 30 of whom are presumed dead.
Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed at least 28,858 people, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Lula criticized a recent decision by Western countries to halt aid to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, after Israel accused some of its employees of involvement in the October 7 attack.
Lula, who met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit, said Brazil would increase its contributions to the agency, and urged other countries to do the same.
Lula said, “When I see the rich world announcing that it is stopping its contributions to humanitarian aid for the Palestinians, I imagine how great the political awareness of these people is and how much solidarity they have in their hearts. How great is the feeling.”
“When we want to go big, we have to stop being small.”
He reiterated his call for a two-state solution to the conflict, in which Palestine “be definitely recognized as a full and sovereign state.”
