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Brazil's President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva (at a press conference on 5 November)

Photo: ADRIANO MACHADO / REUTERS

Brazil's President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva has equated the Israeli army's military response to the atrocities of the Islamist Hamas with "terrorism." Israel's behaviour towards women and children is tantamount to terrorism," Lula said in his weekly video message on online networks. There is "no other way to put it". The umbrella organization of Jewish communities in the country reacted with sharp criticism.

Referring to civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip, Lula said: "If I know that there are children in any place, then even if there is a monster in there, I cannot kill the children because I want to kill the monster."

For days, fighting has been taking place around Shifa Hospital, the largest clinic in the Palestinian territory. According to Israeli information, there is an underground command post of the radical Islamic Palestinian organization Hamas. Hamas rejects this.

Lula has condemned Hamas atrocities as a "terrorist attack"

With its massive military operations in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army is responding to the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU. Hundreds of Hamas fighters invaded Israel on October 7 and committed atrocities, mostly against civilians. According to Israeli figures, about 1200,240 people were killed in Israel and about <> people were taken hostage to the Gaza Strip.

Since then, the Israeli military has been attacking targets in the Gaza Strip, and ground troops have also entered the Palestinian territory. According to Hamas, which cannot be independently verified, about 11,240 people were killed in the Gaza Strip.

Lula has condemned the Hamas atrocities as a "terrorist attack" but has repeatedly criticized Israel's military actions. On Monday, while greeting 32 Brazilians and their family members who had been flown out of the Gaza Strip, he accused Israel of committing "a series of acts of terrorism" by "failing to take into account that children and women are not involved in the war."

The evacuations of Brazilian citizens from the Gaza Strip were preceded by weeks of diplomatic tug-of-war that strained relations between Brazil and Israel.

The Israelite Confederation of Brazil, the umbrella organization of the country's Jewish community, sharply criticized Lula's remarks. The head of state equated "attacks by a terrorist organization that uses the Palestinian population as human shields" with Israel's military response. The institute pointed to Israel's "visible and proven" efforts to "spare Palestinian civilians."

ktz/AFP