Brazilian President Lula on Monday accused Israel of “killing innocent people without any criteria” in the Gaza Strip, calling the Jewish state’s response “as serious” as the attacks by Hamas, AFP reported.

“After the terrorist acts committed by Hamas, the consequences of Israel’s decision turned out to be as bad as Hamas’s decision. They kill innocent people without any criteria,” said Luís Inácio Lula da Silva during an official ceremony in Brasilia.

The president of Latin America’s largest country also accused Israel of “dropping bombs where there are children, such as in hospitals, under the pretext that there may be terrorists there.”

“It is unclear. First you must save the women and children, then fight anyone else,” Lula insisted.

On Oct. 7, the Palestinian Islamist movement’s attack on Israel was unprecedented in scale and violence since the state’s creation in 1948, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, according to authorities.

According to Israeli military estimates, about 240 people were also taken hostage in the Gaza Strip.

Since then, Israel has been relentlessly bombing Gaza and since October 27 has been conducting a ground operation to “destroy” Hamas. According to the Hamas Health Ministry, 11,240 people, mostly civilians, including 4,630 children, died as a result of the bombing.

Israel denies deliberate attacks on hospitals. He accuses Hamas of using the facilities or the tunnels beneath them as hideouts, which the Islamist militant group denies.

On the same topic:

• Israeli army: Hamas command center found under Gaza children’s hospital; there could be hostages