Ammon News - Israel protested with the Vatican on Wednesday after Pope Francis' deputy defined what is happening in Gaza as "carnage" resulting from a disproportionate Israeli military response to Hamas.

"It is a deplorable statement. Judging the legitimacy of a war without taking into account all relevant circumstances and data inevitably leads to wrong conclusions," the Israeli embassy to the Holy See said in a statement.

A day earlier, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin reiterated the "request that Israel's right to defence, which has been invoked to justify this operation, be proportional, and certainly with 30,000 deaths, it is not."

"I believe we are all outraged by what is happening, by this carnage, but we must have the courage to move forward and not lose hope," Parolin said, adding that "we must find other ways to solve the problem of Gaza, the problem of Palestine."

"No one can define what is happening in the (Gaza) Strip as 'collateral damage' in the fight against terrorism. The right to defence, Israel's right to bring the perpetrators of the October massacre to justice, cannot justify this carnage," it said.

The pope, who has issued multiple pleas for peace in the Middle East and elsewhere, has faced previous criticism from Jewish groups over Vatican positions on the Israeli-Gaza conflict.

Reuters