The president says he would like to talk to anyone who is a “friend” of the extremist group, those who would say, “Hey man, tell Hamas to fucking release the hostages.”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) said on Friday (October 27, 2023) that he wanted to speak to the “friends” of the extremist group Hamas to ask them for the release of the hostages in the war. According to Israel, 233 people were kidnapped in Hamas’ first attack on October 7.
“When I have information: ‘Look, hey, Lula, there is a president of this country who is a friend of Hamas.’ That’s the one I’m going to call. “Hey man, tell Hamas to release the hostages, damn it.” Tell Hamas to release the hostages. Why should the hostages be kept there? Free. There are people who have to take medication, there are people who have asthma. Free the hostage. And also talk to the Israeli government. Free the prisoners, free the kidnapped. What is this?’”, explained the PT member at an event with journalists at the Palácio do Planalto.
Watch (1 min 14 sec):
Hamas had previously announced that it would not release the hostages in its custody until a ceasefire was agreed with Israel.
The representative of the paramilitary group’s delegation in Moscow, Russia, Abu Hamid, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that Hamas needed time to locate all the hostages kidnapped by various Palestinian factions. According to Hamid, “So far, 50 prisoners have been killed in Israeli bombings.”
So far, Hamas has released four hostages all for “urgent humanitarian reasons.” The first two were on October 20th: Judith and Natalia Raanan, American mother and daughter aged 59 and 17 respectively. The other two were released on October 23: Yochved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Yitzhak, 79.
On this topic, President Lula said that he had spoken to “many people” about a peace agreement: “I have started talking to the President of Israel [Isaac Herzog] and then I spoke to the president of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas]then I spoke to the President of Iran [Ebrahim Raisi]with the President of Türkiye [Recep Tayyip Erdogan]with the President of Egypt [Abdul Fatah Khalil AlSisi]with the President of the United Arab Emirates [Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan]with the President of France [Emmanuel Macron]with the European Council, with the Emir of Qatar [Tamim bin Hamad alThani]. And I still have to talk to Xi Jinping [presidente da China]. I have to speak to the Prime Minister [da Índia, Narendra] Modi, with the President of [África do Sul, Cyril] Ramaphosa. I’ll talk to everyone. Someone needs to talk about peace.”
Lula criticized the UN Security Council (United Nations) veto of the Brazilian solution. And he stressed that he is focused on deporting Brazilians staying in Gaza across the border with Egypt.
COFFEE WITH JOURNALISTS
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) gathered this Friday (October 27, 2023) 37 journalists from 37 media outlets for a breakfast at the Palácio do Planalto that lasted 1 hour and 20 minutes. O Power360 took part. It was the PT member’s fifth meeting with the media since his return to power in January this year. The event took place on the birthday of the CEO, who turned 78.
Read the names of the journalists and vehicles that took part in the infographic:
The first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, sat on the president’s left side. On Lula’s right sat the Minister of the Presidency Communications Secretariat, Paulo Pimenta. Also sitting at the right end of the main table was the Secretary of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Márcio Macêdo, and at the left end was press secretary José Chrispiniano, who coordinated the selection of which journalists could ask Lula questions.
Here are the outlets that asked questions, in the order in which they were asked:
- economic value;
- Brazil247;
- Portal;
- Diary of the Center of the World;
- TV Globo;
- Folha de S.Paulo.
The coffee was scheduled for 11 a.m., but Lula arrived at 11:44 a.m., accompanied by Janja and the Secretary of the Secretariat for Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, who left right at the start of the coffee.
Read more about Lula’s breakfast with journalists: