GAZA (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Hamas Movement welcomed the BRICS group’s call for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and a full, unconditional Israeli withdrawal from the territory and all occupied Palestinian lands.
In an official statement responding to the final communiqué of the BRICS summit held in Brazil’s capital, the Movement said, “We welcome the final statement of the BRICS summit and its call for a ceasefire in Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces, and its condemnation of violations of international humanitarian law, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.”
Hamas urged BRICS and all countries worldwide to pressure the Israeli government to comply with international law and to stop its aggression and genocide against innocent civilians in Gaza. The Movement also demanded an end to the “criminal blockade” imposed on more than two million people.
BRICS leaders called for Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza and all occupied Palestinian territories, as well as for a permanent and unconditional ceasefire in the Strip.
This call came in a joint declaration issued during the BRICS leadership summit hosted by Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on July 6–7.
The declaration emphasized that Gaza is “an inseparable part of Palestine,” and called for full Israeli withdrawal from the territory and all other occupied Palestinian lands, alongside a permanent ceasefire.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with US backing, has been waging a campaign in Gaza that many international observers and legal experts have labeled a genocide. It includes mass killing, starvation, destruction of infrastructure, and forced displacement, in blatant defiance of international appeals and rulings from the International Court of Justice demanding it be halted.
This war has resulted in over 193,000 Palestinians killed or injured, most of them women and children, with more than 10,000 missing under the rubble and hundreds of thousands displaced. A devastating famine has already claimed many lives, including those of dozens of children.
During the summit, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva emphasized the need to stop ignoring the ongoing genocide in Gaza. In his opening remarks, he said, “We cannot continue ignoring the genocide being committed by Israel in Gaza, the massacres of innocent civilians, and the use of hunger as a weapon of war.”
Lula da Silva has repeatedly accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians and has sparked diplomatic controversy for comparing Israel’s actions in Gaza to the Holocaust. In a speech in Rio de Janeiro in February 2024, he said, “What the State of Israel is doing is not a war, it is genocide, because it is killing women and children.”
As of now, the war continues unabated, with the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorating further amid an ongoing total siege and lack of access to food, water, medicine, and shelter.
