"I am particularly close to the families affected by this act, which is among those against the civilian population. I ask for an immediate end to the barbarity of war and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict." These were the heartfelt, yet severe, words spoken by Pope Leo XIV at the Angelus in the packed Piazza di Castel Gandolfo. Addressing the international community, he urged strict observance of humanitarian law, and therefore, consequently, respect for the prohibition on the indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of populations. Indeed, as widely reported by the media, an Israeli air raid hit the Parish of the Holy Family, killing three people and wounding others, including the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli.
A "misdirection," Israel appears to have called it. More precisely, during a phone call with US President Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu apparently claimed that the attack had been "a mistake," and that Israel "remains committed to protecting civilians and holy sites."
Well, aside from those statements, which are likely questionable in many respects, there would appear to have been two direct repercussions and effects on the situation: on the one hand, the tangible sense of Israel's growing international unpopularity over its military operations in the Strip, and, on the other, the increasingly widespread skepticism about the bombing's accidental nature. First, because the prevailing impression seems to be that of a war waged and exacerbated by other factors rather than by Israel's defensive needs, and which, clearly, appears unacceptable and otherwise unjustifiable by the international community as a whole. Therefore, while it is true that self-defense is a legal principle according to which a State, attacked by another State, has the right to defend itself from such aggression, it is equally true that the provision of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter has, so to speak, a binary meaning, in the sense that the use of force is permitted only and exclusively in all prescribed cases of self-defense, which, in truth, would not appear to be identifiable in the circumstances. Finally, because, consequently, any other use of force must necessarily be considered illegal.
