Italy and the Gaza War: Between Compassion and Pragmatism
In recent months, Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has described Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 as “disproportionate.” Two years later, the war continues to devastate Gaza and divide Europe. Ceasefires have collapsed, treaties have faltered, and protests fill city streets. Meloni now finds herself in a fragile position, trying to advocate for humanitarian aid and a future Palestinian state while maintaining Italy’s alliances with the European Union and the United States.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, remains one of the most controversial leaders in modern politics. In 2019, he was indicted for fraud, bribery and breach of trust. Some critics argue that prolonging the war shields him from legal accountability. Since the start of Israel’s military campaign, satellite data from the UN and World Bank show that more than 70 per cent of Gaza’s structures have been destroyed. According to UNICEF, more than 3,000 children have lost one or more limbs, and famine has taken hold across the strip. The Gaza health ministry reports more than 67,000 Palestinians killed, while the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that over 80 per cent of the population has been displaced.
Still, Hamas is not blameless. The group has long been accused of embedding its military infrastructure within civilian areas—hospitals, schools, apartment buildings—effectively using civilians as shields. However, surveys by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research show that around 70 per cent of Palestinians oppose Hamas’s disarmament, reflecting a deep distrust of Israel and the absence of a viable political alternative.
For Italy, being a relatively small but symbolically important Western country, the war has become a moral and diplomatic dilemma. Meloni has emphasised that Italy is among the top ten contributors of humanitarian aid to Gaza, having pledged more than €30 million and assisted the evacuation of dozens of injured civilians to Italian hospitals. She has called for a lasting humanitarian pause, though her coalition partners remain cautious about openly criticising Israel. At the same time, public pressure is growing, and Meloni must navigate between compassion and pragmatism, a balance that becomes harder with every airstrike.
The scale of human loss, however, transcends politics. Nearly one third of Gaza’s dead are children, and famine conditions are spreading. Most survivors have no homes to return to. At this point, the war has defied sides and become about survival itself. Thousands of civilians have been caught in the crossfire. Under international humanitarian law, leaders are required to minimise the impact on women, children, and other noncombatants, yet those protections have been eroded in practice.
In Italy, the protests have been massive. From Milan to Naples, demonstrators have blocked rail lines and occupied major squares. In Rome alone, between 200,000 and 250,000 people marched over four consecutive days in October demanding an end to the war. Across Europe, similar protests have signalled growing public frustration with what many perceive as unconditional Western support for Israel.
Despite a US-brokered ceasefire agreement on 10 October 2025, both Israel and Hamas have since violated its terms. Each side has returned the remains of soldiers to their homelands, but peace remains elusive. Israel continues to wield immense diplomatic power, its influence stretching far beyond the Middle East, often leaving allies like Italy struggling to balance strategic loyalty with moral clarity.
Ultimately, the truth is difficult but unavoidable: Israelis are not being attacked at the rate Palestinians are. Civilian suffering is no longer collateral; it is the defining feature of this conflict. With two-thirds of Israelis now saying the war should end, the question is no longer who wins, but who survives. And Italy, like much of Europe, is left in a position where its help can only do so much. Proportionality has been completely disregarded, and the optics for Israel grow worse by the day.
Ph: Rome, Italy – March 10, 2023: Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, ahead of their meeting at the Chigi Palace.
