Brazil's president withdraws his country's ambassador to Israel

Shafaq News/ Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva withdrew his country's ambassador to Israel on Wednesday after months of tensions between the two countries over the war in Gaza.

The move was announced in Brazil’s official gazette.

Lula has been a frequent critic of Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which he compared to the Holocaust earlier this year. That led Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz to summon the Brazilian ambassador to the national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem for a public reprimand.

The removal of Brazil’s Ambassador Frederico Meyer comes in response to that action by the Israeli top diplomat, according to a person at Brazil’s foreign ministry with knowledge of the situation.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.

Meyer has been transferred to Geneva and will join Brazil's permanent mission to the United Nations and other international organizations. Palestinian militant Hamas group burst into Israeli communities near Gaza in a surprise attack on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent offensive has killed at least 36,096 Palestinians, according to local authorities and international organizations.

In February, Brazil's Lula said that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”

Israel says its war in Gaza is a defensive action triggered by Hamas' unprecedented assault and rejects any comparisons of its offensive to the Holocaust.