Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's comparison of Israel's military campaign in Gaza to the Holocaust has unleashed a diplomatic firestorm, with Brazil recalling its ambassador Monday and Israel declaring Lula "persona non grata."

Brazil's ambassador to Israel Frederico Meyer (C) visits the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem, where he was summoned by Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz.

The row erupted the day before when Lula said the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip "isn't a war, it's a genocide," and compared it to "when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Lula had "crossed a red line," and Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Lula is "persona non grata in the state of Israel so long as he doesn't retract his remarks and apologize."

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 said it had also summoned the Israeli ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Zonshine, for a meeting later that same day, and recalled Meyer from Tel Aviv for consultations.

According to a diplomatic source, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Zonshine had a "harsh, but appropriate" conversation, as Vieira "demonstrated dissatisfaction" with the treatment of Meyer and Lula in Jerusalem over the situation.

That included Meyer being forced to listen to a statement in Hebrew "without an interpreter, without knowing what was being said," the source added.

- G20 meeting -

Veteran leftist Lula, 78, is a prominent voice for the Global South and his country currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20.

His comments came as Brazil prepares to host a G20 foreign ministers' meeting Wednesday and Thursday, when top diplomats including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gather in Rio de Janeiro, with the divisive Gaza conflict high on the agenda.

The war started October 7, when Hamas launched an unprecedented attack that left about 1,160 people dead in southern Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages -- 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,092 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

- Political divide -

In the aftermath of Hamas's attack, Lula condemned it as a "terrorist" act.

But he has since grown vocally critical of Israel's response.

He has faced backlash at home for his latest comments on the conflict, which came during a press conference on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

The Brazil-Israel Institute called his statements "vulgar," and warned they risk "fueling anti-Semitism."

The Israelite Confederation of Brazil called them a "perverse distortion of reality (that) offends the memory of Holocaust victims and their descendants."

Hitler's Germany systematically exterminated six million Jews during the Holocaust -- an estimated one-third of world Jewry.

After World War II, the newly founded state of Israel took in hundreds of thousands of survivors.

Lula's conservative opponents also pounced on his remarks, which outraged many in the powerful Evangelical Christian community, which is staunchly pro-Israel.

"Lula not only showed his ignorance of history, he showed the world the hatred in his heart against the state of Israel," lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro, posted on X.

Political allies meanwhile rushed to Lula's defense. First Lady Rosangela "Janja" da Silva, a long-time member of his Workers' Party, said his comments "defended... women and children, who represent the majority of victims" in the conflict.

"His statements referred to the genocidal (Israeli) government, not the Jewish people," she wrote on X.

Netanyahu calls Brazil's leader ‘antisemite’ for Holocaust comparison:

Israel responded with outrage Sunday to comments by the Brazilian president comparing the war in Gaza to the Holocaust, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went as far as calling Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a “virulent antisemite.”

The two countries have been at odds since Lula, as the Brazilian leader is universally known, returned to power last year. Lula has accused Israel of genocide for its overwhelming military response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, and Sunday he said the conflict does not pit soldiers against soldiers but is instead “a war between a highly prepared army and women and children.”

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn’t been seen in any other moment in history,” Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa. “Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”

Netanyahu said on social media that the Brazilian ambassador to Israel would be called in for “a stern reprimand,” and said Lula crossed “a red line.”

In a translation of his post in Hebrew, Netanyahu called Lula’s statements “shameful” and added. “This is about trivializing the Holocaust and trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself.”

Developments:

∎ At least 18 people in Gaza were killed by Israeli strikes overnight into Sunday, among them six in the southern city of Rafah − including a woman and three children − and seven in Gaza City in the north.

∎ U.S. Central Command said it struck against five Houthi targets Saturday, including three anti-ship cruise missiles, a submarine drone and a sea drone, after concluding "they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.''

∎ Israeli swimmer Anastasia Gorbenko was booed by part of the crowd Sunday after winning the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the Doha World Championships in Qatar.

Netanyahu pledges to 'finish the job'; Rafah offensive by March 10?

Netanyahu and his top officials kept up the public pressure on Hamas to temper its demands in cease-fire negotiations, as the prime minister vowed Sunday to "finish the job'' in Gaza and a member of his War Cabinet suggested a deadline for an invasion of the southern city of Rafah.

Netanyahu called back his negotiating team after a day of fruitless talks in Cairo last week and has indicated he's not inclined to make major concessions or relent in plans to pursue Hamas fighters in Rafah, saying the way to gain the hostages' release is through "strong military pressure and firm negotiations.”

About 1.4 million Palestinians are believed to be sheltering in and around Rafah, on the border with Egypt, and aid organizations have warned a ground offensive could result in a humanitarian catastrophe.

Retired Gen. Benny Gantz, one of the three members of Netanyahu’s War Cabinet, told a conference of Jewish American leaders the incursion could take place in three weeks.

“If by Ramadan our hostages are not home, the fighting will continue to the Rafah area,” Gantz said. Ramadan, a holy month on the Islamic calendar, is expected to begin March 10 this year.

Gaza hospital 'not functional' after raid, WHO chief says

Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest functioning medical facility in Gaza before an Israeli raid last week, is now out of commission, the World Health Organization said Sunday.

"Nasser hospital in #Gaza is not functional anymore, after a weeklong siege followed by the ongoing raid,'' WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.

Tedros said WHO teams bringing in fuel were twice denied entry into the hospital as they sought to assess the condition of patients and medical needs. He added there are about 200 patients left at the hospital and at least 20 are in urgent need of referrals elsewhere.

Khan Younis in southern Gaza has been the focus of the Israeli offensive for weeks as a Hamas hub. The Israel Defense Forces said it arrested more than 100 militants, including 20 who participated in the Oct. 7 attacks that triggered the Hamas-Israel war, in an incursion that began Thursday to seek the remains of hostages.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said 70 medical personnel were among those arrested, leaving only four to care for patients, and that patients in hospital beds were also detained. Eleven patients died because of the loss of power and oxygen caused by the sweep, the BBC reported.

Tedros warned of more fatalities if those with critical needs don't get proper care. "The cost of delays will be paid by patients’ lives," he said.

Iran halted militia assaults after Tower 22 strike, report says

The Jan. 28 drone strike that killed three American soldiers at a base in Jordan, an assault the U.S. blamed on Iran-backed militias, prompted Iranian leaders to order a pause in those attacks to prevent an escalating conflict, Reuters reported Sunday.

Esmail Qaani, commander of Iran's Quds Force, met with representatives of the militant groups less than 48 hours after the attack on the Tower 22 base, which also injured 47 U.S. service members, Reuters said. His message: Hold your fire or risk a powerful American response that may include targeting senior commanders and even Iran itself.

The U.S. did retaliate on Feb. 2, hitting more than 80 militia targets at four sites in Syria and three in Iraq, but did not strike inside Iran. There haven't been any assaults on U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq since Feb. 4, Reuters pointed out, following a two-week stretch of more than 20 such episodes leading up to Tower 22 strike.

US to veto latest Security Council call for cease-fire

The U.S. said it would once again veto a draft U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, saying it goes against the efforts to find a permanent solution to the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The draft “will not be adopted,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, referring to the motion circulated by Algeria, the Arab representative on the Security Council.

“It is critical that other parties give this process the best odds of succeeding, rather than push measures that put it – and the opportunity for an enduring resolution of hostilities – in jeopardy,” she said.

The U.S., Qatar and Egypt have been trying for weeks to broker a cease-fire that would free the remaining 100-plus hostages in Gaza, but they've faced unyielding demands by both Israel and Hamas. On Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet adopted a declaration saying the country “categorically rejects international edicts on a permanent arrangement with the Palestinians” and opposes any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.