The Holy See’s ambassador to Lebanon has appealed for a ceasefire and new negotiations after Israeli strikes across the country left at least 182 people dead and hundreds injured. In an interview with Vatican News, Archbishop Paolo Borgia said Lebanon “desires and deserves” peace and warned that war brings only “death and destruction”.
The strikes were carried out on Wednesday, 8 April, a day after a two-week ceasefire involving the United States, Israel and Iran had been announced. Israel said the truce did not extend to Lebanon or to its conflict with Hezbollah. Archbishop Borgia said the scale of the assault was without precedent in his experience, describing reports of around 10 near-simultaneous strikes in 10 minutes and suggesting that a very large number of Israeli warplanes had been deployed, though he noted that some details still needed verification.
