Italy has advised Israel not to retaliate against Iran for the drone and missile attack late Saturday, warning that given the volatile Middle East situation, "you cannot always give as good as you get".
"The situation in the Middle East is very delicate, there is a real risk of escalation," Italy's deputy foreign minister Edmondo Cirielli said late Monday.
"Israel has to use its powers of reason - as the G7 is telling it to - and understand that we cannot always give as good as we get," Cirielli said.
Israel has had the full support of the Western allies and Italy "and has the right to politically eliminate totalitarian Hamas' rule in Gaza" following the "truly genocidal pogram" by the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamist group during its 7 October attack, he said.
"We all agree on that," Cirielli underlined.
Some 1,200 people - including women, children and the elderly - were killed Hamas's cross-border rampage on 7 October and over 200 people were abducted.
While recognising Israel's right to route Hamas, the tens of thousands of casualties in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory six-month-old bombing campaign and military offensive "is becoming intolerable", Cirielli stated.
"In the end, we have to seek dialogue and peace," Cirielli said.
Despite mounting international calls for restraint, Israel's military command has vowed to respond to Iran's attack, in which a seven-year-old Bedouin girl was the sole serious casualty.
