VATICAN EDITORIAL: ISRAEL ‘CANNOT JUSTIFY THIS CARNAGE’ IN GAZA

Thu 15 February 2024:

In a front-page editorial in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano headlined “Stop the Carnage”, editorial director Andrea Tornielli challenged Israeli leaders on the ongoing Gaza attack.

Tornielli quoted a Rome-based Holocaust survivor, Edith Bruck, who has been highly critical of the Israeli government’s war, which she blames for the rise in anti-Semitic acts against Jews around the world.

“No one can define what is happening in the Strip as ‘collateral damage’ from the fight against terrorism,” Tornielli wrote. “The right of defence, the right of Israel to ensure justice for those responsible for the October massacre, cannot justify this carnage.”

Pope Francis speaks daily via videoconference to a Gaza parish housing Palestinian war-displaced civilians.

Israel has formally complained after a senior Vatican official denounced the “carnage” in Gaza and what he called a “disproportionate” Israeli response following the October 7 Hamas attack.

The Israeli embassy to the Holy See called the comments by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, “regrettable”.

Speaking at a reception on Tuesday, Parolin condemned the Hamas attacks and all forms of anti-Semitism. But he questioned Israel’s claim to be acting in self-defence by inflicting “carnage” on Gaza.

“Israel’s right to self-defence has been invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but with 30,000 dead, it’s not,” he said.

The embassy said Israeli forces were acting according to international law, adding the proportion of Palestinian civilians to “terrorists” killed was less than in other conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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