Overview

• Israel’s embassy to the Holy See publicly criticized Parolin’s interview on X, warning it could undermine peace efforts and alleging improper moral equivalence.
• Parolin condemned the Oct. 7 Hamas assault as an inhuman massacre while insisting Israel’s defense must respect proportionality and must not reduce civilians to collateral victims.
• He urged serious scrutiny of continued arms supplies used against civilians and lamented the international community’s failure to halt the bloodshed.
• The Vatican denounced antisemitism as a cancer and said it would support any plan that includes Palestinians in decisions and frees hostages, including the proposal presented by President Donald Trump.
• Leon XIV called for a cease-fire and the release of hostages and cited a toll of roughly 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7 attack and about 67,000 Palestinian deaths over two years.