Israel criticized the Vatican for comments made by Holy See Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who referred to the war in the Gaza Strip as “carnage” and “disproportionate”.
Parolin made the remarks during a celebration marking the anniversary of Vatican City's recognition as a sovereign city-state. He condemned Hamas attacks and “all forms of anti-Semitism” but later questioned whether Israel’s reaction was appropriate.
“Israel’s right to self-defense was invoked to justify that this operation is proportional, but, with 30,000 dead, it is not,” he assessed.
The Israeli embassy to the Holy See classified Parolin's comments as “regrettable” in a statement in English released this Thursday (15). In an earlier version, in Italian, the embassy used the term “deplorable”, but softened the language in the English version to “regrettable”.
“Judging the legitimacy of a war without taking into account all relevant circumstances and data inevitably leads to wrong conclusions,” the unsigned statement reads.
It then lists what it calls “relevant data”, highlighting that “Gaza was transformed by Hamas into the largest terrorist base of all time”.
“There was almost no civilian infrastructure that was not used by Hamas for its criminal plans. This includes hospitals, schools, places of worship and many others,” he states.
The statement continues, pointing out that the Israeli response was “in full accordance with international law” and that “three civilians lost their lives for every Hamas militant killed”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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