VATICAN CITY – Tensions between the Holy See and Israel have risen after Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin called on Israel to stop the “carnage” in Gaza, leading to the Israeli Ambassador to respond on X.

 Cardinal Parolin, speaking on Tuesday at an event commemorating 95 years of the Lateran Treaty, said that Israel’s response to Oct. 7 was “disproportionate” and that he was “outraged” by the “carnage.” He also said that while Israel had a right to self-defence, killing “30,000” people was not the correct way to “solve the problem of Gaza” and Israel should look for other alternatives.

 The Israeli Ambassador to the Holy See, Raphael Schultz, responded on Wednesday, hitting out at the Cardinal’s “deplorable declaration” in a statement on X, saying that the Vatican Secretary of State was “not considering the bigger picture.” He accused the Cardinal of “judging the legitimacy of the war without taking into account all relevant circumstances” and reaching “erroneous conclusions.”

 Schultz argued that “IDF operations are conducted in full compliance with international law” whereas “Gaza civilians actively participated in war crimes.” Both Hamas and Israel have been accused of violating the Geneva conventions, due to the capture and killing of civilians.

 Schultz also addressed the death toll in Gaza where “for every Hamas militant killed, three civilians lost their lives”, saying that Israel was “trying to avoid civilian deaths.” He compared this to “NATO wars in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan” where the death ratio was “9 or 10 civilians every terrorist.”

 Since Oct. 7, relations between the two countries have worsened, due to Pope Francis’s repeated calls for end to war and violence across the Middle East. Both the pontiff and the Secretary of State have strongly condemned antisemitism.

 The pope continues to call the only Catholic church in Gaza on a daily basis, where two Palestinian Christian women leaving the building were killed by a sniper in December. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem also issued a statement in December saying the IDF had launched a rocket which hit a convent and set it on fire.

 The pontiff criticised Israel for these attacks saying that “killing civilians in the church is terrorism.”

 khg