Brazil's President accuses Israel of 'premeditated genocide' in Gaza
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel on Thursday (June 5, 2025) of carrying out "premeditated genocide" in the occupied Palestinian territory of Gaza.
"(It is) a premeditated genocide from a far-right government that is waging a war, including against the interests of its own people," he said at a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.
"What is happening in Gaza is not a war. It's a genocide being carried out by a highly prepared army against women and children," said Lula, who has previously used the legal term to describe the conflict.
"We see a genocide unfold under our eyes day after day," he added. "It's no longer possible to accept."
Mr. Macron said the "coming days" would be decisive to halt the conflict.
"We will ramp up pressure in coordination with the Americans to obtain a ceasefire," he said.
France is due later this month to co-host with Saudi Arabia a United Nations conference in New York on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mr. Macron said that he expected the conference would take steps "towards recognising Palestine", without being more specific.
He has said he hopes French recognition of a Palestinian state would encourage other governments to do the same and that countries who do not recognise Israel should do so.
But he has declined to use the word "genocide", saying last month it was not for a "political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes".
Earlier this year, Lula called Israel's war in Gaza "genocide" and said he was not sure the United States, a staunch ally of Israel, was "the best placed to take care of Gaza".
He spoke after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested taking control of Gaza to turn it into "the Riviera of the Middle East" after "permanently" resettling its Palestinian residents in other countries.
Rights groups, lawyers and some Israeli historians have also described the Gaza war as "genocide" and called for a ceasefire.
But Israel, created in 1948 in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the term.
Israel's war on Gaza since October 2023 has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The United Nations said on May 30 the besieged territory's entire population of more than two million Palestinians is at risk of famine, despite Israel saying last month it was partially easing the complete aid blockade it imposed on Gaza on March 2.
The war started after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Of the 251 hostages seized, 55 remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
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