Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Brazil’s president insisted the world must act to stop what he described as an Israeli “genocide” in Gaza, as leaders from 11 emerging BRICS nations gathered in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
“We cannot remain indifferent to the genocide carried out by Israel in Gaza, the indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians and the use of hunger as a weapon of war,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told leaders from China, India, and other nations.
His comments came as Gaza truce talks between Israel and Hamas resumed in Doha, and as pressure mounted to end the 22-month war, which began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks.
Lula said Sunday that “absolutely nothing could justify the terrorist actions” of Hamas on that day — which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly Israeli civilians.
But he also offered fierce criticism of Israel’s subsequent actions.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,418 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.
The BRICS gathering includes Israel’s arch foe Iran, but also nations like Russia, which have close ties with the country.
BRICS countries have been in disagreement over how strongly to denounce Israel’s bombing of Iran and its actions in Gaza.
But one diplomatic source said the text would give the “same message” that BRICS delivered last month.
Then Iran’s allies expressed “grave concern” about strikes against Iran, but did not explicitly mention Israel or the United States.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to visit the White House on Monday for talks with US President Donald Trump, who is pushing to end the war and has said he hopes for a ceasefire deal in the coming week.
