Italy must avoid sending arms to Israel, says left-wing opposition party

A senior Italian politician has called on the Rome administration to stop providing weapons to Israel, saying the country cannot risk its munitions to be used in ways that could constitute “war crimes,” ANSA news agency reported, Anadolu reports.

“We must face the issue of avoiding fueling these conflicts, of avoiding sending and exporting arms to conflicts, to the conflict in the Middle East, in this case, particularly to Israel,” left-wing opposition Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein said at a party meeting in the northern town of Gubbio on Friday.

“Because we cannot risk weapons being used to commit what could be considered war crimes.”

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A response to Schlein came on Saturday from Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who said “the government had already decided not to export arms to Israel after the outbreak of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7.”

As such, he added, Schlein’s call for weapons not to be sent to Israel was superfluous.

With the latest Palestinian casualties, the death toll from Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza since Oct. 7 has risen to 25,105, with 62,681 others injured, the ministry said.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

READ: 178 Palestinians killed in Gaza in last 24 hours, death toll climbs to 25,105