Tension continues to mount between Brazil and Israel over President Lula da Silva's statements on the situation in Gaza.

The Brazilian leader, let us recall, compared the Israeli offensive against Hamas with the actions of the Nazis against the Jews.

Yesterday, his foreign minister Maurio Vieira declared that Israel "is increasingly isolated in the international arena".

And he accused his Israeli counterpart Israel Katz of distorting Lula's words.

The diplomat said that the Israeli government is using Lula's statement as a "smokescreen to cover up the real problem of the ongoing massacre in Gaza".

There, Vieira explained, "30,000 Palestinian civilians have already died, most of them women and children".

It is worth recalling that Foreign Minister Katz had declared Lula "persona non grata", and stated that his remarks were "an anti-Semitic attack".

In the meantime, Colombian President Gustavo Petro expressed his solidarity with his Brazilian counterpart.

The Colombian leader stated in his X account that "Lula has only told the truth: there is a genocide going on in Gaza".

For its part, Washington sided with Israel in the dispute, through State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

At a press conference, he said: "Obviously we do not agree with those comments; we do not believe that genocide has taken place in Gaza".