Pope Francis criticized military strikes as going “beyond morality” after he was asked about Israel’s recent escalation of attacks in Lebanon targeting top Hezbollah commanders.
Francis made the comments while on the way home from Belgium when reporters asked him to weigh in on the Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah’s longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday. The strike in Beirut targeted an area larger than a city block and reduced several buildings to rubble.
Hezbollah confirmed that the airstrike also killed Ali Karaki, one of the group’s senior commanders. At least seven top commanders of the Iran-backed militant group have been killed in recent days by Israeli attacks.
Andrew Medichini / AP
Francis, who did not mention Israel by name and said he was speaking in general terms, said “the defense must always be proportionate to that attack.”
“When there is something disproportionate, there is a dominant tendency that goes beyond morality,” he said. “A country that does these things – and I’m talking about any country – in a superlative way, these are immoral actions.”
He said that while war itself is immoral, there are rules that “indicate some morality”.
“But when you don’t do this … you see the bad blood of these things,” he said.
Nasrallah’s death has sent shockwaves throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, where he has been a dominant political and military figure for more than three decades.
President Biden said the Israeli attack was a “measure of justice” for victims of Hezbollah’s “reign of terror.”
Francis has sought to strike a balance in his comments on Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and the conflicts in Gaza and southern Lebanon that have followed. He has called for an immediate ceasefire, for the release of hostages taken by Hamas and for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza.
Francis reiterated that he calls the Catholic congregation in Gaza every day to see how they are doing.