Tajani deploys Italy: government opposed to Gaza offensive

The Israeli ground operation, with tanks advancing in several areas on the outskirts of Gaza City, is not shared by the Italian government. The line is dictated by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. "We have always said that we are against the offensive on Gaza because of the risks to the civilian population, certainly not to defend Hamas which uses hostages as human shields," Tajani told Skytg24. He added. it is necessary "to speed up the timetable for a ceasefire, the release of the hostages without conditions and an end to the attacks. We have already seen carnage in these months in Gaza, it will not be easy".

On the same wavelength was Defence Minister Guido Crosetto: 'I don't think the attack on Gaza is good for Israel. I don't think that the fight against Hamas, which is sacrosanct, should be done in this way, I don't think we can think of deporting the Palestinian people, it's not something that secures Israel, but neither does any other country in the Middle East. I think that a possibility of coexistence between Palestinians and Israel must be found, and that this is possible if somehow the proxies of Iran and terrorist organisations like Hamas are eradicated. The way Netanyahu has chosen, not Israel, are two different things for me, in my opinion it is not the right method,' the Defence Minister said on the sidelines of the Defence Procurement forum in Rome.

Meanwhile, the opposition urges Meloni to report back to the House. "We are tired of hearing Tajani's platitudes, saying 'we are against Israel's operations because there are risks to civilians'. There are two things: either you are accomplices or you are totally inadequate," said M5s group leader Riccardo Ricciardi, associating himself with the PD's request for communications from PM Meloni on Gaza. "It is time for the president to come to the House,' Roberto Giachetti (Iv) joined in, 'to reason about what role Italy intends to play. Come and tell us what initiatives the government intends to take to stop an action that is no longer justifiable from any point of view'. Action also joined the request.

"The illegal occupation of Gaza by the Israeli army must be stopped immediately, where, instead, humanitarian aid, food, and medicines must enter to provide relief to an exhausted and starving people," said PD secretary Elly Schlein, in a note, defining Netanyahu's as a "criminal plan agreed with Trump to colonise Palestine, annex the West Bank, and annihilate the civilian population". And again: 'Europe has begun to react, albeit belatedly, by calling for sanctions against the Israeli government. The opposition of the Italian government is one of the causes of the EU's immobility. After more than 60,000 Palestinian deaths, Meloni still chooses Trump and Netanyahu and brakes a tough European reaction. We cannot accept that Italy is an accomplice, because we are facing one of the darkest and most tragic pages of contemporary history,' she concludes.

Avs's reaction is even harsher: 'The ground attack on Gaza is another leap in the genocide, in the extermination of the Palestinian people: I make an appeal, the umpteenth, to the Italian government, do something, intervene. Enough with empty words, with hypocrisy, with complicity, it is no longer bearable'. This was said, in Florence, by the Secretary of Sinistra Italiana, Nicola Fratoianni, who this morning, at the Arci headquarters in Piazza dei Ciompi, took part in the presentation of Avs candidates for the regional elections in Tuscany, together with the Secretary of Europa Verde, Angelo Bonelli.