Italy foreign minister says Gaza needs ‘civil government’

By Giovanni Legorano

ROME (AA) – Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Wednesday that Gaza needs a “civil government” and that all G-7 countries are working towards a two-state solution to the conflict.

“I will reiterate to Israeli authorities that Italy aims at a ‘civil government’ in Palestine, to a two-state solution. The two people, two states is the only possible solution, albeit a difficult one,” he told journalists at a press conference on the priorities of this year’s Italian presidency of the G-7.

“Is it a dream? Sometimes impossible dreams can come true and we have to pursue them. All G-7 countries are working with this objective."

Tajani said the goals of the Italian presidency of the G-7 will be international cohesion and stability, with the priority being stabilizing the Middle East, where Italy will work for a de-escalation of the conflict.

To that end, he said, he will be on a diplomatic mission to Israel, Lebanon and Palestine in the coming days “to bring a message of peace and dialogue.”

“We don’t want the situation to worsen, our initiatives go in that direction. We are moving in a very balanced way. We have condemned the inhuman attack by Hamas and we forcefully ask for the liberation of the hostages. We have urged Israel from the beginning to have a proportionate reaction,” he said.

He added that Gaza’s civilian population has no responsibility, saying that “not all Palestinians are terrorists.”

“The profanation of corpses has been an act of cowardice. What happened was a war crime of which we don’t talk about enough,” he said.

Israel declared war on Hamas after the group's Oct. 7 cross-border offensive, believed to have killed 1,200 people and taking a further 240 hostage.

Israel’s bombardment of Hamas-ruled Gaza has so far killed more than 24,000 people, most of them women and children, and displaced 1.9 million of the enclave’s more than 2.2 million inhabitants. The attacks have also led to acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.

US has proposed a revitalized Palestinian Authority to take charge in Gaza once the conflict is over, unifying its administration with the West Bank, a suggestion Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to accept.​​​​​​​