Questioned on Gaza, Italian FM Says Country Stopped Selling Weapons to Israel After Oct. 7

By Matis Glenn

Italian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani told local media Saturday that his country had halted all arms shipments to Israel since Hamas’s brutal October 7 onslaught.

The minister’s comments, made in an interview with Italian newspapers Nazione, Giorno, and Resto del Carlino, were a response to a demand by opposition leader Elly Schlein that the Italian government stop weapons exports to the Middle East. Tajani accused her of being “misinformed.”

“Since October 7, we have decided not to send any more arms to Israel, so there is no need to discuss this point,” said Tajani, according to a report from Italian news agency ANSA.

According to Israeli news site Walla, some five percent of Israeli arms purchases over the past decade have come from Italy, which include helicopters and naval artillery.

Tajani, a former air force officer who has led the conservative Forza Italia party since the death of its chairman Silvio Berlusconi in July, made an early solidarity visit to Israel at the start of the war on Hamas, and in November reaffirmed with other G7 nations his belief in Israel’s right to defend itself, within the bounds of international law, against Hamas aggression.