BOGOTA, Colombia

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday once again said that the Israeli military is committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip. 

"It is a genocide. Thousands of children are dead and thousands are missing. Soldiers are not dying. Women and children are dying at the hospital," he said at an event in Rio de Janeiro, adding: "If that's not genocide, I don't know what genocide is."

The Brazilian president also called for the establishment of a “free and sovereign” Palestinian state.

Also speaking about the UN Security Council, he said: "Today it represents nothing, it does not take any decisions, it does nothing for peace.”

“There is a lot of hypocrisy in the world today and very little politics,” Lula said, adding: “We cannot accept what is happening in Gaza and we cannot accept the war in Ukraine."

He said the countries with veto power are not acting democratically.

Lula pointed out that nearly 30,000 people, mostly women and children, have lost their lives in the attacks on Gaza since October 2023.

"It is impossible for people not to understand what is happening in Gaza.”

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,500 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

For the first time since its creation in 1948, Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, the highest judicial body of the United Nations, over its Gaza war.

An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Merve Berker