Israel's actions in Gaza and Lebanon are disproportionate and immoral: Pope Francis

AP , Sunday 29 Sep 2024

Pope Francis on Sunday described Israel's attacks in Gaza and Lebanon as “immoral” and disproportionate, saying its military domination has gone beyond the rules of war.

Pope Francis
Pope Francis talks to journalists on a flight back to Rome at the end of a four-day visit to Luxembourg and Belgium on September 29, 2024. AFP

 

Francis was asked en route home from Belgium about Israel’s targeted killing of one of Hezbollah’s founding members, Hassan Nasrallah

Friday's strike in Beirut targeted an area greater than a city block and reduced several residential buildings to rubble, and at least six other deaths have been confirmed.

Francis didn’t mention Israel by name and said he was speaking in general terms. But he said that “the defense must always be proportionate to the attack.”

“When there is something disproportionate, there is a dominating tendency that goes beyond morality,” he said. “A country that does these things, and I’m talking about any country, in a superlative way, these are immoral actions.”

He said that even if war itself is immoral, there are rules that “indicate some morality.”

“But when you don’t do this … you see the bad blood of these things,” he said.

The death of Nasrallah has sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a dominant political and military figure for more than three decades.

US President Joe Biden said the Israeli strike was a “measure of justice” for victims of Hezbollah’s “reign of terror.”

Francis has called for an immediate ceasefire, for the release of captives taken by Hamas and for humanitarian aid to get to Gaza.

Francis repeated that he calls the Catholic parish in Gaza every day to see how they are doing.

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