9:23 p.m.: For Lula, Israel’s reaction is “as serious” as the Hamas attack
Brazilian President Lula on Monday accused Israel of “killing innocent people without any criteria” in the Gaza Strip and judged the Jewish state’s response to be “equally serious” as the Hamas attacks. “After Hamas’ terrorist attacks and their consequences, Israel’s solution proved 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 children are, such as hospitals, under the pretext that terrorists are there.” “It’s inexplicable. First you have to save the women and children, then you fight with whoever you want,” Lula insisted.
Lula will greet at an air base in Brasilia on Monday evening 22 Brazilian citizens and 10 members of their families who were living in Gaza and were evacuated across the Egyptian border on Sunday after more than a month of waiting.
On Thursday, Celso Amorim, a close adviser to Lula who represented Brazil at a humanitarian conference on Gaza in Paris, declared himself in favor of a “ceasefire” and estimated that the deaths of thousands of Palestinian children in Israeli bombings were reminiscent of “genocide”.