Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused Israel of carrying out “premeditated genocide” in the Gaza Strip during a trip to Paris, AFP reports.

“It’s a premeditated genocide from a far-right government that is waging a war against the interests of its own people,” he said at a joint press conference with France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

While Lula has previously used the term “genocide”, Macron has refused to, saying last month it was not for a “political leader to use to term but up to historians to do so when the time comes”.