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Italian defense minister says Rome suspended weapons supplies to Israel

The licenses that had been issued before October 7 were already mostly implemented, Guido Crosetto said

ROME, March 14. /TASS/. Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said Rome did not supply weapons to Israel after October 7, 2023.

"After October 7, there were no new authorizations from the relevant organization to transfer weapons to Israel, which led to the suspension of deliveries. The licenses that had been issued before October 7 were already mostly implemented," the minister said at the parliament.

He also said that shipments that had been authorized but not implemented before said date were re-examined to make sure that "the list does not contain materials that, if used, could affect the residents of the Gaza Strip."

The situation in the Middle East sharply escalated following an incursion of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip into Israel on October 7, accompanied by killings of residents of Israeli settlements near the border and taking more than 200 hostages, including children, women and elderly people. Hamas cast the attack as a response to Israeli actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Israel declared a complete siege of the Gaza Strip and started striking the enclave and parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank. According to Gaza officials, the death toll among civilians tops 31,000 people.

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