Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party on Friday criticized the Israeli government for not allowing 34 Brazilians to leave Gaza, saying Israel is playing favorites when deciding who should be allowed to evacuate the besieged Palestinian territory.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen informed his Brazilian counterpart that Brazilian citizens would leave Gaza on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Brazilian Foreign Ministry reported late Friday.
In the three days since the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was opened to allow citizens of other countries to leave Gaza, Brazilians waiting to leave were not on the list approved by Israel, despite diplomatic efforts to include them.
“For the third time, the Israeli government denied the departure of Brazilian citizens threatened by the massacre against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” said the president of the Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, in a message on social networks.
He said the Israeli government has given no explanation for what he called discrimination. Brazil attempted to find a negotiated solution to the conflict when it presided over the UN Security Council in October, Hoffmann said.
“Unfortunately, the Israeli government points out that it has established a political hierarchy for the release of civilians, favoring some countries to the detriment of others,” Hoffmann said.
“We cannot allow Brazilian civilians to continue to be threatened in a region subjected to a military massacre,” he added.
Hundreds of seriously injured Palestinians holding foreign passports have been evacuated from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt since Wednesday, in a deal brokered by Qatar between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the United States.
Israel has vowed to crack down on Hamas, which rules Gaza, after the militant group killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel. Gaza health authorities declared Saturday that more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli assault.
A diplomatic source briefed on Egyptian plans said some 7,500 foreign passport holders would be evacuated over two weeks.
Brazilian officials said they have no explanation for the non-departure of their citizens from Gaza. Some local media have speculated that it is due to the positions adopted by Brazil in the United Nations and comments by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Lula has criticized Hamas’ “terrorism” that started the war, but he has also criticized Israel for its “insane” bombing of Gaza that has killed hundreds of children.
Source: Ambito
