Statements from Meloni and Mattarella: "No cause can justify the massacre of 7 October"

On the third anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, have paid tribute to the victims of the massacre and the hostages, once again calling for a political solution that guarantees security for Israelis and a future for Palestinians.

“The passage of time does not diminish the gravity of those crimes. No cause can justify the deliberate massacre of innocent people,” says the Prime Minister, who reiterates her solidarity with the victims’ families, the hostages and the Israeli people, whilst reaffirming her commitment to combating “all forms of anti-Semitism”.

The Prime Minister adds that, “precisely in the interests of protecting the entire civilian population involved, we cannot remain indifferent to the dramatic and unacceptable suffering of the people of Gaza or to the escalating violence to which Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are being subjected”. “The spiral of violence must be stopped,” she continues, pointing to the two-state solution within recognised borders as the way to ensure security and dignity.

Mattarella, too, recalls “the tragic anniversary of the despicable attack carried out by Hamas against numerous Israeli civilians”, the young people killed and abducted during the festival, and the victims taken hostage in their homes. “Acts of terrorism can never be justified or swept under the carpet. They will remain, for all peoples, a painful warning so that the barbaric and uncivilised scourges of terrorism, anti-Semitism and all forms of ethnic and religious hatred may be forever condemned and firmly rejected, in the Middle East and throughout the world.”

The Head of State also comments on the Israeli response. “The military operations carried out by Israeli forces in Gaza have caused human and material devastation of an intolerable severity. At the same time, the erosion of territories allocated to the Palestinian National Authority is unacceptable.” According to Mattarella, the conditions for coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians must be re-established within the framework of the ‘Two Peoples, Two States’ approach.