(LifeSiteNews) — An Italian cardinal who has worked closely with Pope Leo XIV for several years candidly denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nation’s “unbridled, and illogical evil” being committed against the people of Gaza.
“He is a tyrant pursuing a dark and bloody plan for power,” Cardinal Augusto Paolo Lojudice, 61, said in a July 21 interview with Italy’s La Stampa. “Apart from Donald Trump, who is only interested in selling weapons, no one accepts his self-legitimization anymore.”
“There are those who have torn their garments reading the word ‘genocide,’” the Archbishop of Siena and Montepulciano observed, “but in Gaza we are beyond madness, the most unbridled and illogical evil is at work. The killing of children queuing for a handful of rice cries out to God for justice.”
“How can those who commit such atrocities and have tens of thousands of victims on their conscience look at themselves in the mirror?” asked Lojudice, who also serves as a judge on the Vatican Court of Cassation. “There is nothing reasonable about carnage; it is evil that takes over and wipes out any sense of humanity.”
He went on to address the phenomenon of radical religious Zionism, which after a steady growth in the nation for a few decades has been able to seize power by joining Netanyahu’s slight majority coalition to form a government in late 2022. Their ongoing support for the prime minister remains necessary for him to remain in power.
READ: Israeli extremist rabbis instruct soldiers heading to Gaza: ‘Kill all their children’
“No violence can exploit the name of God,” Lojudice said. “In Israel, fundamentalist sectors are now in command, combining fundamentalism with extreme right-wing policies in a mad quest for absolute power. The right of force humiliates the force of law.”
“Because of foolish choices, they commit the same atrocities that were committed against them” during the holocaust, he continued. “Life has lost all value compared to the economic gain of the death industry and wealth used as oppression.”
The cardinal also recalled a story of his being approached by a woman from the Jewish community at a recent charity concert. She was “almost in tears, with an apologetic tone. I hugged her and replied that religious affiliation had nothing to do with (Israeli crimes in Gaza)” also stipulating that “not all Jews” are fundamentalists.
READ: Jewish Israelis confront Gaza genocide with photos of slain children
Warning about the long-term effects of these atrocities, the archbishop said “the unfolding of blind and cruel violence will spill over into future generations for decades, sowing discord.”
But in hope he offered the remedy given by God in the Person of Jesus Christ: “Christianity has a power that transcends all boundaries. It breaks down the walls of hatred” as displayed by Christian Palestinians in the Holy Land whose presence “stands out as a prophetic oasis” bearing “witness to the possibility of another way of living on the same earth.”
Making reference to his leading a delegation of bishops to the Holy Land, the prelate described what he saw as “ethical and material devastation that digs into you and you never forget. In Gaza, civilians are the victims of the conflict, and human dignity is trampled on more and more every day.”
🚨NEW: Former U.S. Green Beret Anthony Aguilar says he routinely witnessed Israeli forces (IDF) firing artillery tank rounds and mortar rounds into crowds of unarmed, starving Palestinians at GHF aid sites in Gaza.
“I witnessed war crimes,” the GHF security contractor told the… pic.twitter.com/4C4ppk5fcW
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) July 26, 2025
“We cannot afford to forget that it is not targets that are being hit, but people with souls and dignity,” he said. “We must mobilize to stop the tragedy of a horrible war, which is increasingly senseless and totally devoid of any human and moral justification.”
“If the tyrant is not stopped, there is no way out,” the cardinal advised.
National governments legally obligated to intervene with military force to end genocide
After leading the Angelus at Castel Gandolfo on July 20, Pope Leo XIV expressed his “deep sorrow for the attack by the Israeli army on the Catholic parish of the Holy Family in Gaza City” three days earlier. He condemned these “ongoing military attacks against the civilian population” and called for “an immediate end to the barbarity of war.”
He also appealed to “the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians, as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, of indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population.”
According to Francesca Albanese, the U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories, these are examples of “war crimes, crimes against humanity, (and) the genocide crime committed by Israel” for which there is “incontrovertible documentation.”
READ: Former Israeli defense minister affirms IDF is committing ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Gaza
During a recent interview, the Italian legal scholar explained the legal obligations imposed by international law on all member states with regards to holding all parties, particularly Israel, responsible for their war crimes and crimes against humanity that are ongoing, even daily.
In a Tuesday tweet, she ridiculed the “absolute incapacity of Western leaders to enforce intl law when it comes to Israel,” calling it “EPIC.”
Addressing “Ministers, Prime Ministers, (and) Presidents of Republic,” she admonished, “Doing NOTHING, diverting attention, sanctioning individual ministers IS NOT enforcing the intl law that was developed after the Holocaust and WWII to prevent another Holocaust and WWII.”
The absolute incapacity of Western leaders to enforce intl law when it comes to Israel is EPIC.
Ministers, Prime Ministers, Presidents of Republic:
Doing NOTHING, diverting attention, sanctioning individual ministers IS NOT enforcing the intl law that was developed after the…
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 29, 2025
“At this critical point,” while a chorus of global voices recognize that Israeli is committing genocide in Gaza, particularly by means of starvation, the human rights expert said states are obligated under international law to “sanction Israel,” execute a “total arms embargo,” use even their military power to “break the siege,” freeze “all trade agreements with Israel till the end of the genocide, occupation and apartheid,” and prosecute individuals and organizations that have committed crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“Together we can, and we will,” she optimistically concluded.
A documented genocide: conservative estimates of over 300,000 dead
As Israel continues to massacre and starve Palestinian civilians on a daily basis, reliable reports of Palestinian deaths number at least 60,034, including 17,400 children at a confirmed minimum with at least 145,870 people injured. These dead do not include around 14,000 who are missing and presumed dead and buried under the rubble.
Furthermore, at least 1,239 Palestinians have been killed and 8,152 injured attempting to access aid parcels from the widely condemned Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which started operating on May 26, 2025.
This system corrals the besieged and starving population into a small area where Israeli army commanders have often ordered their soldiers to fire on them, massacring many, and such killings continue today.
According to a rationale presented in a Lancet study in July 2024, one can conservatively estimate total deaths, including indirect fatalities due to causes like starvation, lack of medicine or proper medical care to include 300,170 (132,075 children).
Commenting on the ongoing catastrophic situation in Gaza, independent British Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn tweeted, “World leaders can make as many statements as they like opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza. Until they end the sale of weapons to Israel, they remain complicit in the mass murder of Palestinians. Stop arming genocide, now.”
World leaders can make as many statements as they like opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza.
Until they end the sale of weapons to Israel, they remain complicit in the mass murder of Palestinians.
Stop arming genocide, now.
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 20, 2025
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