The diplomatic crisis sparked by Brazilian President Lula’s comments comparing the Gaza war to the Holocaust escalated on Monday: Lula is now “persona non grata” in Israel, whose ambassador has been summoned by Brazil’s government, AFP reports.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva caused a storm on Sunday when he accused Israel of committing “genocide” against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, comparing the Israeli offensive to the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis.

Following these statements, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz announced on Monday that Lula is persona non grata in Israel.

“I told President Lulu that he is persona non grata in Israel until he apologizes and retracts his comments,” Katz said during a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where he summoned Brazil’s ambassador to Israel.

“Brazilian President Lula’s comments comparing the State of Israel’s just war against Hamas, which killed and exterminated Jews, to Hitler and the Nazis are a disgrace and a serious anti-Semitic attack on the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” Katz said. added to the ceremony with the participation of AFP.

In response, Brazil’s foreign minister summoned Israel’s ambassador to Brazil on Monday.

“Given the seriousness of the Israeli government’s statements this morning, Minister Mauro Vieira (…) summoned Israel’s ambassador, Daniel Zonshin,” to Rio de Janeiro, according to a press release from the Brazilian ministry.

He also “recalled for consultations the ambassador of Brazil in Tel Aviv, Frederico Mayer, who will leave for Brazil tomorrow (Tuesday).”

“We will not tolerate world leaders trying to provide Hamas with political or legal cover,” Israeli government spokesman Eilon Levy said at a press conference.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned the “shameful and serious” remarks.

Hamas is pleased

“What is happening in Gaza is not war, it is genocide,” Lula told media from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he was attending an African Union summit.

These were the harshest statements by Lula, whose country currently chairs the G20, on the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Brazil’s foreign minister is in Rio de Janeiro to prepare for the G20 summit scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Hamas hailed Lula’s words as an “accurate description of what (his people) are suffering” in Gaza and revealed the “enormity of the crime” committed by Israel.

Brazil’s 78-year-old leftist president condemned the October 7 Hamas attack as a “terrorist act.” But he has since sharply criticized Israel’s retaliatory military campaign.

Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israeli territory has left 1,160 people dead, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s shelling and ground offensive in Gaza since then has killed at least 29,092 people, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.

Lula’s controversial statement “referred to the genocidal government, not the Jewish people,” commented the X wife of Brazil’s head of state, Rosangela da Silva, known as “Yanja”, taking aim at the Israeli authorities.

She expressed her “pride” for her husband, who “since the beginning of this conflict in Gaza has defended peace and especially the right to life of women and children, who represent the majority of victims.”