Italy suspends defence agreement with Israel, says Meloni

As Israel continues to reject calls to stop its attacks on Lebanon, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has suspended the defence agreement with Israel.

“The government, in light of the situation we are experiencing, has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” Meloni said, according to the Italian‑language newspaper La Repubblica.

Meloni’s announcement on Tuesday comes a day after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and its near‑daily bombing of the country as “unacceptable” during a visit to Beirut.

Tajani said the visit was meant to “convey Italy’s solidarity following Israel’s unacceptable attacks against the civilian population”.

The Israeli offensive in Lebanon has killed more than 2,000 people and injured over 6,000 across the country, according to authorities.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has announced that the country will continue to occupy all Lebanese territory up to the Litani river indefinitely — a strip of land up to 30 kilometres from Israel’s border comprising around 10 per cent of Lebanon.

Katz has said Israel will not allow around 600,000 Lebanese natives to return to the occupied territory. He has said the military will raze all Lebanese villages in the occupied area — just like Rafah in the Gaza Strip where it has already demolished nearly the entire city and expelled Palestinian natives.

Israel’s war on Lebanon has displaced around 1.2 million people inside the country — including 600,000 whom Israel has disallowed from returning and whose homes are slated for destruction.

Previously, in 2024, Meloni had suspended all arms sales to Israel over its bombardment of the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attack.

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