Brazil foreign minister accuses Israeli counterpart of 'lying' in Gaza row

Brazil's foreign minister has accused his Israeli counterpart of "lying" as a diplomatic spat escalated over President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's comparison of Israel's onslaught in besieged Gaza to the Holocaust.

Mauro Vieira, whose country is hosting a G20 foreign ministers meeting this week, said on Tuesday that "outrageous" statements by Israel Katz were "unacceptable in their nature and lying in their content."

Israel has reacted furiously after Lula said its onslaught in the blockaded enclave "isn't a war, it's a genocide," and compared it to "when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

After four months of the Israeli military's slaughter of over 29,000 Palestinians and more than 69,000 wounded in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Lula had "crossed a red line," and Katz declared the Brazilian leader "persona non grata in the state of Israel so long as he doesn't retract his remarks and apologise."

Katz summoned Brazil's ambassador Frederico Meyer for a meeting Monday at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center in Jerusalem.

In a tit-for-tat move, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry then summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zonshinem, and recalled Meyer from Tel Aviv for consultations.

On Tuesday, Katz took to X to describe Lula's comparison as "delusional."

So far, in its onslaught in Gaza, Israel has displaced some 85 percent of Palestinians in the blockaded enclave, and rendered all of them food-insecure, according to the UN.