Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva gives a speech at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

At a summit at the Arab League in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva criticized the United Nations for its failure to address international conflicts and harshly condemned "Israel's" actions in Gaza.

"Israel's behavior has no explanation: with the pretext of fighting Hamas, it is killing women and children," he said after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

During a speech before the Arab League, Lula stated that his country opposed the actions of the Palestinian resistance on October 7, but he deemed the Israeli genocidal campaign that followed these events as "disproportional and indiscriminate," noting that such actions are intolerable.

There can be no peace without the establishment of a Palestinian State, Lula said, as he urged for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza.

"The killing must be stopped," he said.

Palestine must be recognized as sovereign state

Elsewhere in his remarks alongside Sisi, Lula stressed that Palestine must be recognized as a sovereign state and admitted to the United Nations as a full member. In light of the ongoing massacre, he called for urgent reform of the UN Security Council.

"The multilateral institutions that were created to help solve these problems do not work, which is why Brazil is committed to making the necessary changes in global governance bodies, and we hope to count on Egypt's support," Lula told reporters.

He suggested that the permanent Security Council be expanded and veto powers be abolished. "It is the permanent members of the Security Council that foment wars," the Brazilian leader said.

Lula further recalled that Brazil has supported South Africa's case brought before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the Israeli regime.

Now serving his third non-consecutive term, the Brazilian president declared that his government would provide a new contribution to the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA). This support is direly needed at a time when most Western contributors have decided to cut funding due to allegations of collaboration with the resistance.

"The recent allegations against the agency's staff need to be properly investigated, but they cannot paralyze it," he said, calling other countries "to maintain and increase their contributions."

Lula was among the first world leaders to recognize that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza constituted genocide.

In the first weeks that followed the October 7 operation, Lula said: "It's not a war, it's a genocide that has killed nearly 2 thousand children who have nothing to do with this war, they are victims of this war. And frankly, I don't know how a human being is capable of war knowing that the result of that war is the death of innocent children."

In November 2023, the Brazilian leader likened Israeli actions in Gaza to terrorism, stating: "Israel's attitude toward children, toward women, is the equivalent of terrorism," he said. "There's no other way to put it."