Mattarella: 'The attacks of 7 October are a warning against ethnic and religious hatred'. Human and material devastation of intolerable severity in Gaza

Today marks the tragic anniversary of the despicable attack perpetrated by Hamas against numerous Israeli civilians. Many young people, including those of other nationalities, were cowardly attacked, taken hostage or deprived of their lives while they were gathered for a festive occasion. Others brutally killed or kidnapped from their homes, without any mercy for children and the elderly. Acts of terrorism can never be justified or archived. They will remain, for all peoples, a painful warning that the barbaric and uncivilized plagues of terrorism, anti-Semitism and every form of ethnic and religious hatred are forever condemned and firmly rejected, in the Middle East and throughout the world. This was stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.

The repugnant acts which, with extreme and inhuman cruelty, were committed on 7 October 2023 have reopened a dramatic phase of instability and violence in the region. To the atrocious suffering caused is added that which, even more since then, weighs on multitudes of Palestinians.

The military operations conducted by Israeli forces in Gaza have caused human and material devastation of intolerable severity. At the same time, the process of erosion of territories attributed to the Palestinian National Authority is unacceptable.

The spiral of unprecedented violence must be stopped, instead recreating the conditions, now deeply compromised, of coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians in the "Two Peoples, Two States" perspective, in order to be able to live peacefully, side by side. This was stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in a statement on the occasion of the anniversary on 7 October.

On this occasion I wish to renew the closeness of the Italian Republic to the people of Israel, to the families of the victims and to those who still bear the wounds of that terrible day, hoping that the determination of the entire international community to build lasting conditions will be strengthened so that there is peace and security for those tormented lands and peoples. This was stated by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.