The Vatican’s top diplomat has condemned Israel’s war in Gaza as an “ongoing massacre”, while castigating the international community, especially those "countries truly capable of exerting influence", for failing to act as the death toll continues to rise.
In remarks published by Vatican Media on the second anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, said that while nations have a right to defend themselves, “even legitimate defence must respect the principle of proportionality".
He said the Israeli offensive “disregards the fact that it is targeting a largely defenceless population, already pushed to the brink, in an area where buildings and homes are reduced to rubble”. He lamented that “the countries truly capable of exerting influence have so far failed to act to stop the ongoing massacre”.
Cardinal Parolin’s interview came as Gaza entered its third year of conflict, following Hamas’s October assault in 2023 which killed more than a thousand people in Israel and led to the outbreak of war in an urban environment, often the deadliest kind of conflict.
Back in 2023, the Vatican immediately condemned the Hamas attack as “inhuman and indefensible” and has since repeatedly called for the release of hostages still held in Gaza. “We cannot and must not forget them,” Parolin said, noting that both Pope Francis, before his death last year, and Pope Leo have issued numerous public appeals for their freedom.
Describing the scenes in Gaza as “inhuman”, the cardinal said he was “deeply afflicted by the daily death toll in Palestine of dozens, sometimes hundreds, every day – so many children whose only fault seems to be having been born there”. He warned that the world risks becoming “desensitised to this carnage”, adding that no one should be reduced to “mere collateral damage”.
Cardinal Parolin also condemned the rise in antisemitism since the start of the war, calling it “a cancer that must be fought and eradicated”. He said that it was wrong to attribute responsibility for the war to Jews collectively, noting that “many strong dissenting voices have also been raised within the Jewish world against how the current Israeli government has operated”.
He reiterated that “no Jew should be attacked or discriminated against for being Jewish, and no Palestinian should be attacked or discriminated against simply for being Palestinian”.
The situation in Israel and Palestine is increasingly fraught as the conflict in Gaza intensifies and new internal fractures emerge. Since October 2023, Israeli airstrikes and ground operations have killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, with thousands more wounded, according to Gaza health authorities.
On the Israeli side, public sentiment is shifting, with polling suggesting that a majority now favours ending the war, while many Israelis see Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as bearing political responsibility over the handling of the 7 October attacks and subsequent military campaign.
Parolin, recalling the Vatican’s decades of quiet diplomacy in the region, urged renewed efforts for peace, warning that the alternative is “endless war, the abyss of hatred and the self-destruction of the world”.
His remarks come as world leaders debate fresh ceasefire proposals, with the Holy See calling for prayer and concrete action “before it is too late”.
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Photo: An Israeli army tank in front of a war-damaged building in Gaza City, 3 October 2025. (Photo by JACK GUEZ/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.)
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